REESE LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
. iSovn
OF THE
[UNIVERSITY,
A HISTORY
OF AMHERST COLLEGE
DURING THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF ITS
FIRST FIVE PRESIDENTS
FROM l82I TO 1891
BY
WILLIAM S. TYLER, D. D., LL. D.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY
RICHARD SALTER STORRS, D.D., LL. D.
UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1894,
BY FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK.
PREFACE.
THE first edition of this history appeared shortly
after the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of
the college, and was entitled " History of Amherst
College during its First Half Century, 1821-1871."
The present new edition has been written and revised
with particular reference to two objects, viz: first,
the continuation of the history so as to include the
close of Dr. Stearns' presidency and the entire ad-
ministration of President Seelye, thus making it a
history of Amherst under its first five presidents ; and
second, at the same time to abridge the work and make
it a smaller and less costly volume, which should be
within the means of every graduate. In thus abridg-
ing it, I have been under the necessity of omitting
the biographical sketches of the founders and bene-
factors, the trustees and faculty, and the personal
contributions of alumni of the college, which were a
characteristic feature of the first edition and gave it
variety, lifelike reality, and dramatic interest. But
whatever it may have thus lost in variety and in-
dividuality, we trust it has gained in fulness and
completeness as a history of the college.
My first thought was to write a separate book on
the religious history of the college. I might thus
IV PREFACE.
have made both the literary and the religious history,
especially the latter, somewhat fuller and more satis-
factory in some particulars. But this separation
would have put asunder what God joined together.
A history of Amherst College without its religious
history would hardly have deserved the name. More-
over, at the age of fourscore years and four it were
unsafe to presume so much on the future. So I have
devoted my last two chapters to the religious history
of the college, and especially to that characteristic
feature, its revivals, leaving unsaid, for brevity's
sake, not a few things which I would gladly have
written of the measures, methods, and every-day re-
ligious life of the college.
Our readers will be pleased to find several pages of
the book occupied by a contribution from a favorite
alumnus and almost lifelong trustee of the college,
who knows its history and men and measures, and
who, as the golden-mouthed orator of the Brooklyn
pulpit, has such a marvellous and magic power of tell-
ing his story. If any of them question the taste of
the author in permitting a complimentary biographi-
cal sketch of himself to be prefixed to his own book,
there are two things to be said about it. In the first
place, "laudari a viro laudato" is an honor which
any man may justly prize. And in the second place,
the responsibility rests, not on the author, but on the
publisher, who insisted on the insertion of such a
sketch, partly, I flatter myself, out of sincere friend-
ship and affection for his old teacher, and partly, I
ween, in order to give wings to the publication,
wherein I admire his wisdom and wish him all the
success which he has so well earned by his unwearied
PREFACE. V
efforts to bring out the book in a form and style
worthy of the college of which he is an enterprising,
loyal alumnus.
It has been my singularly happy lot to be person-
ally acquainted with all of the five presidents, except
the first, the history of whose administrations I have
here written, to be associated with them in the
faculty, and to be honored with their confidence and
personal friendship. And I beg leave to present
them to my readers in this preface, as the Grecian
Helen introduced the heroes of Greece and the con-
querors of Troy in that inimitable preface, the Third
Book of the Iliad :
President Moore, portly and courtly, winning and
wise, laying wisely and well the corner-stone of the
great edifice that was to be reared, but nothing more,
contending manfully and heroically against the com-
bined forces of local prejudice, rival institutions, and
sectarian zeal, but falling in the struggle before his
beloved college had even been recognized as a college
by a charter from the legislature, dying like Moses
on Pisgah, in sight only of the promised land.
President Humphrey, stalwart, strenuous, and
strong, the honored and beloved pastor, the revival
preacher, the champion of temperance and home and
foreign missions, the very impersonation of common
sense, practical wisdom, and Christian principle;
laying broad and deep the foundations, giving the
college its distinctive and paramount religious char-
acter, rejoicing in a growth and prosperity so rapid
that it seemed miraculous, second only to Yale in
the number of its students, but overtaken almost as
suddenly by a reaction that was as inevitable as it
VI PREFACE.
was disastrous, and in his retirement evincing a
magnanimity more grand than any success.
President Hitchcock, the man of genius and im-
agination, the Christian scientist who saw "the cross
in nature and nature in the cross," the great com-
moner, whose face was as familiar to all the farmers
of Massachusetts as his horse, his geological wagon,
and his chest of tools, who imparted to the college
his own scientific spirit and reputation; who enlisted
Woods, Lawrence, and Williston in its behalf, paid
off its debts and gave it its first scientific buildings
and its first permanent endowments, and, when he
had thus put the enemy to rout and secured the vic-
tory, fell back into the ranks and served as a com-
mon soldier to the end of his life.
President Stearns, the Christian gentleman, of
general culture, refined tastes, polished manners, and
perfect balance in all his powers and faculties, a
graduate of the ancient and venerable university of
Cambridge, for many years pastor of a church in the
near vicinity of Boston, and bringing with him a
happy union of the principles of his Puritan ancestry
with the dignified and courteous manners of those
cities, capturing by his patience and tact Dr. Walker,
Samuel A. Hitchcock, and David Sears, and intro-
ducing the era of new buildings and large endow-
ments, while at the same time he put a finishing and
polishing touch upon everything, and left, as his
motto for the college, "the highest attainments in
every branch of literature, science, and art, and all
for Christ;" and President Seelye, the Christian
philosopher, statesman, and educator, himself the
largest pattern of a man, physical, intellectual, moral.
PREFACE. Vll
and religious, and by precept and example, in the
classroom and the pulpit, by personal influence and
public administration, impressing that pattern upon
his students, teaching them as his greatest and best
lesson perhaps the art of governing, controlling, and
educating themselves, and every one making the
most of the best there is in him for the highest and
noblest ends.
Such is the royal line of succession, such the more
than princely inheritance, into which our sixth pres-
ident, Dr. Gates, has recently entered. We welcome
him to great expectations, great opportunities, great
advantages, and still greater labors and responsibili-
ties. Our hope, our expectation, our prayer is that,
conserving all that is good in the past and appropri-
ating all that is best in the present and future, Am-
herst, under his wise administration and with the
blessing of Heaven, may rise to an unexampled height
of prosperity and glory. And when the time shall
come for his administration to pass into history, may
he and his colleagues find a worthier, wiser, better
historian to record the facts and perpetuate the mem-
ory of the actors.
(UNIVERSITY)
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
INSTANCES can never cease to be remarkable, if only
for their rareness, in which a distinguished teacher,
having been associated with one institution of learn-
ing for sixty years, is permitted at the end of that
prolonged service to write the history of the institu-
tion, with the assured accuracy of an eye-witness, yet
also with the easy force and vivacity of one still in
his youth. This has been, however, the unusual
privilege of the honored scholar and the eminent
teacher by whom this admirable history of Amherst
college has been prepared.
Having been graduated with honor at the college
in 1830, and having served in it as tutor for the two
years from 1832 to 1834, he was appointed its Pro-
fessor of Greek and Latin in 1836 the professorship
being changed eleven years after into that of the
Greek language and literature. This professorship
he held continuously until two years since, when he
resigned it to get larger leisure for general studies
and literary labors ; and one fruit of this recent in-
terval of comparative leisure appears in the comple-
tion of this detailed and comprehensive narrative
of the inception of the college and of its subsequent
development.
X INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
The exceptional qualifications of Professor Tyler
for this particular work will be instantly recognized
by those who know him, and who are themselves in
any measure acquainted with that progress of the
college which he so affectionately traces. Himself
educated in it, and the second of its graduates to be
appointed to the chair of a professor, he has been
personally familiar with each stage in its advance,
while he has always represented, at least as fully as
have any of the men from time to time associated
with him, its special moral, literary, and educational
tone. He has borne his large share of the burdens
which came with its former years of poverty and
weakness. He has rejoiced in the succeeding pros-
perities, to which he had himself effectively contrib-
uted. He has lived to see it firmly established
among those notable institutions for the higher edu-
cation which the country cherishes with gladness
and honor; and it is fitting that he should now bring
to completeness his long, zealous, successful work on
its behalf by making this enduring record of what
he has seen of it, and of what it has become. The
only special limitation to be feared in his survey is
that to which his modesty may constrain him, in pre-
venting him from giving a sufficient account of what
he himself has been in the college, and of what it
owes to his spirit and his labor. But many will be
able from personal recollections to supply such de-
fects , and they will not honor him the less for any
omissions in this direction which they may find.
It was the happy fortune of the writer of this Note
to be a member of the sophomore class at Amherst
in 1836, when Professor Tyler first came to his chair;
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. xi
and, in common with those who had leadership in
the class, he was thenceforth personally conversant
with the work of the new teacher until the " Com-
mencement" of 1839. He felt, as did the others, the
strong impulse which was brought by the then young
professor not only into the department of classical
studies, but into the entire life of the College. It
was an impulse to faithful work, to vigorous think-
ing, to investigation of subjects quite outside of cus-
tomary text-books, to direct and energetic forms of
expression. It was an impulse, especially, toward a
deepened and an invigorated moral and religious tone,
in the classes which successively felt its force. Some
of the sermons then preached by the Professor are
still remembered, in outline at least, by those who
heard them ; and the vital impressions left by them
have never faded. Above all, his keen personal in-
terest in his pupils, his watchfulness over them, the
excellent sense and practical wisdom which marked
his terse and witty counsels, the manly and com-
manding frankness with which he exhorted, encour-
aged, or rebuked, as either was needed, left remem-
brances not to be effaced or forgotten.
The relation of the faculty to the students in
American colleges was at that time more nearly a
paternal relation than it has been in late years, or
is likely ever again to become. Possibly this was
still more marked at Amherst than commonly else-
where. The college community there was never a
large one, embracing at most not more than two hun-
dred and fifty students and teachers. The average
age of those entering college was undoubtedly less
than at present. The modern scheme of elective
Xll INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
studies was wholly unknown; and the emulation in
athletic exercise between classes and colleges, which
now fastens such eager attention, was then as much a
thing of the future as were telephones or typewriters.
The governing aspiration of leading minds in the col-
lege was for success in studies, for enlarged thought-
power, for a more facile and vigorous literary skill,
and for ease and energy in debate.
The aim of those to whom were committed the
various offices of instruction and discipline was there-
fore largely a moral aim not solely, or chiefly, to give
particulars of knowledge in science, philosophy, or
good letters, but to do this in constant subordination
to the virile training of mental power, with the
building up of symmetrical and strong character. As
President Stearns indicated, I think, in his inaugural
discourse of forty years since, the accepted purpose
of the college was to produce the highest manhood
among those who came under its tuition ; and every
teacher was expected, and was inspired, to do his
best work for those set under him through personal
contact not only instructing them on themes and
by text-books, but imparting from himself an imme-
diate intellectual and moral vigor.
It is of course not possible to carry on this plan in
the larger institutions, where the students are now
numbered by thousands, each one being relatively
more mature than before; where each is at liberty,
within limitations, to select his own lines of study,
and of course his own instructors ; and where achieve-
ments on the ball-ground or on the boat-course are
those which stir surpassing enthusiasms. Perhaps
the earlier scheme was too narrow in comparison,
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. Xlll
and failed to put a just emphasis on important mat-
ters. But it had its own merits, and is still affec-
tionately remembered by those who recall it, even
while universities are becoming encyclopedic in
character, and have it for their controlling purpose
to give information on all sorts of subjects, with only
slight occasional relations between the teachers and
the taught. The distinct personal and moral effects
of the earlier plan were certainly in some respects
more significant than those now contemplated. Class-
fellowship under it became more intimate and more
animating than it now can be. There was a common
inspiriting college-life, which affected more or less
each one brought within its range ; while still the in-
dividuality of students was not destroyed or limited
was only, in fact, cherished and re-enforced by this
prevailing but unseen force.
It used to be thought, in some quarters, that the
only or the chief design at Amherst was to train
ministers for Congregational churches; yet in the
particular class to which allusion has been made were
those who after graduation became Episcopal clergy-
men, one of whom has been for twenty-five years an
honored Bishop in that communion. Another mem-
ber of it became a very distinguished Roman Catho-
lic priest and professor of theology, and now has a
place of honor and power in the Catholic University
at Washington. The two sons of another, himself
becoming a merchant, have since been graduated at
Oxford University, and are both at this time mem-
bers of the British Parliament ; while others of the
class have been eminent as lawyers, journalists,
physicians, medical professors, or in other depart-
XIV INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
ments of civil life or educational work. In the class
which was in the senior year while this was in the
freshman, such a fitness for various future work was
still more strongly marked. It was small in number,
only thirty-eight being graduated in it: yet of its
members two became eminent as judges of the su-
preme courts in Vermont and in New York; two
were speakers of the House of Representatives in
Massachusetts, one of them becoming Governor of
the State ; others were medical authors and professors
of high repute, and two were as brilliant and distin-
guished professors in theological seminaries, at the
East and the West, as the half-century has known.
There was certainly no rubbing down of the human
material in their time in college to a particular form
or color. On the other hand, whatever was central
and characteristic in individual tendency and power
was but brought out more fully by the moulding and
impenetrating influence which pervaded the institu-
tion.
Under this general plan of education, none can any-
where have wrought more patiently, more faithfully,
or, on the whole, with more signal success, than did
Professor Tyler and those associated with him. Of
the group of those assembled in the faculty at that
earlier time, he alone remains to see the college in
its present conditions; and it can imply no invidious
comparison to speak of his work as representative of
that which was truest and best in the work of all.
While careful and critical in the details of scholar-
ship, and by no means unduly tolerant of failure in
these, especially when the failure had resulted from
indolence or heedless inattention, his principal aim
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. XV
was, as was that of his associates, to make capable,
robust, high-principled men, alive to truth, responsive
to duty, ready for good work of whatever sort, able to
endure hardness as he was himself, with a certain
strong passion for usefulness in the world, and not
afraid of what men might devise while they were
seeking direction from on high. If a lad of fifteen
or sixteen years, finding himself suddenly in strange
surroundings, failed to discern the larger opportu-
nities thus opened before him, the professor was
prompt and earnest in pointing them out and press-
ing him to improve them. The sluggish were stirred,
while those of keener aspiration were encouraged and
rewarded. If any one brought a persistently evil
force into the community, remonstrance and persua-
sion, when found ineffectual, were followed by speedy
and final removal. The distinctly incapable, whom
neither incitement could urge, nor sarcasm sting, nor
special assistances set permanently forward, had leave
to retire to other pursuits ; while of the most brilliant
and promising men punctuality, obedience and dili-
gence were required, as surely as of the dull. The
supervision was quiet and not obstrusive, but it was
constant, personal, efficient; and the impulses pro-
ceeding from it were inevitably afterward distributed
afar not only in pulpits, courts, and counting-rooms,
or in chairs of instruction in the older States, but
along the frontiers, and on remote and dangerous
missionary fields. The effects of such watchful,
kindly, and intelligent discipline have been really a
nobler memorial to those by whom it then was ex-
ercised than would have been any surpassing fineness
of scholarship in an elect few whom they had in-
XVI INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
stmcted, or any rare and famous achievement in
scientific invention or research.
Of the history of the institution, as sketched in
this volume by an experienced and an accurate pen,
it is of course no part of the office of this Introduc-
tion to give even a summary. But one thing must
be noted, in justice alike to the living and the dead.
Almost every American college has had its special
heroic period, when means were scanty while aims
were high, and when narrowness of resources with
meagerness of equipment combined to lay oppressive
burdens on the heart and hope of those laboring in
it to accomplish great ends. In the older institu-
tions, such periods came in what is now their distant
past. In those more recent they have come in the
experience of men still living, by whom the stress of
them is still vividly remembered, one might almost
say is still painfully felt. At Amherst the time of
the heaviest burdens was no doubt in the two decades
between 1836 and 1856, and it seemed now and then
as if the college itself must sink under the strain.
Humanly speaking, only the faith and the steadfast
fortitude of those then holding office in it sustained
its life, and enabled it to come up from the bogs and
out from the shadows with fresh hope and a renovated
strength. The history of those years may be glanced
at in this volume ; but the reserve of the author has
no doubt imposed restraint on his pen, and the full
story can hardly be written while he is among us.
There was nothing unnatural in the crisis, severe
as it was. The college had been founded without
wealthy patrons, by many people of moderate means
subscribing small sums, in the midst of a frugal agri-
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. xvii
cultural district, when its remoteness from centers of
population and power was vastly greater than it since
has been. It had been founded especially to furnish
education to those not rich in this world's goods, and
founded in the impulse of a fervent and expectant
evangelical faith, which knew little of what was
needed for the complete equipment of a college, but
which felt itself to have all the promises on its side,
and which took small account of the difficulties that
must come difficulties only to be augmented by the
increasing repute of the institution. So it was as
certain as is the operation of any natural law that
times of sore struggle and poverty must be encoun-
tered, before it could attain a position of comparative
security and ease. It has not yet reached that, so far
as to be beyond the need of the constant aid of its
alumni, its friends, and of all who honor it for its
work's sake. But the period of its desperate strait
is over. Its funds and its equipment are not now
wholly inadequate to its work. Its buildings, libra-
ries, collections of art, and general apparatus are
not undeserving of respectful regard when matched
against those of older institutions. It has a distin-
guished and numerous faculty, and the prospect
before it was never larger or brighter than at present.
The lovely natural amphitheater in one of whose foci
it fortunately stands, between responsive ranges
of sentinel hills, and with the unsurpassed western
outlook which it always commands, seems to offer
the parable and the physical prophecy of its sure
foundations, and of the still expanding influence to
go forth from it in centuries to come. As Mr. Web-
ster is reported to have said of Dartmouth College at
xvill INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
the close of his great argument on its behalf before
the Supreme Court in Washington, in 1818: " It is a
small college, but," as he added, "there are those
who love it!" May their number always increase,
and their labor in its service be crowned with ever
richer results !
However long the college may continue, however
far its influence may reach, and howsoever rich it
may become, in accumulating funds, in a generously
enlarged physical equipment, in the men who as
teachers give it grace and renown, in the fame
which shall draw to it students from afar, it may
safely be predicted that none will ever have done
more to determine its character, to invigorate its life,
or to give tone to its widening influence, than did
those who were early associated in it as teachers and
guides; and it may with equal assurance be added
that of all those thus associated none will be remem-
bered with a more affectionate honor than will be
given to him who came to the college in his young
manhood, who faithfully wrought in it till fulness of
years gave him right to retire, and who now becomes,
with the assent of all, its most fitting historian.
He has nothing either tragical or splendid to re-
late in this volume. His story moves along common
levels of life and experience, appealing to the mem-
ory in some, but not at all to the general imagination.
The story is set forth with an engaging sincerity,
to which any impulse of literary ambition would be
utterly foreign. It does not aspire to attract multi-
tudes of readers, or to take a place among brilliant
and famous histories of the time. Yet an old-time
pupil, following attentively its reflective and stimu-
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
lating pages, remembering the strong personality
behind them, and indulging a reminiscent mood,
may not be criticised if now and then he catches in
his thought a self-repeating echo of ancient words,
once familiar, describing that great master of his-
torians whom the author of the narrative before us
long ago studied with enthusiasm, and whom he has
delighted to help many others fairly to interpret:
" Qui ita creber est rerum frequentia, ut verborum
prope numerum sententiarum numero consequatur;
ita porro verbis aptus, et pressus, ut nescias, utrum
res oratione, an verba sententiis illustrentur. "
RICHARD S. STORRS.
BROOKLYN, N. Y. , Nov. 27, 1894.
^.SH LiUfl^l/jy^^
OF THE \
IVERSITY)
OF s
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Queen's College Project First Associated Action in
Regard to Amherst College Amherst Academy the
Mother of Amherst College The Charity Fund-
Question of the Removal of Williams College, . . i
CHAPTER II.
Erection of the First College Edifice Inauguration of the
President and Professors and Opening of the College, . 16
CHAPTER III.
The First Presidency First Catalogue and Course of Study
The Literary Societies Early Amherst Death of
President Moore, 27
CHAPTER IV.
President Humphrey's Administration, from 1823 to 1825
Struggle for the Charter Legislative Investigation
Final Success Seal of the College, . . .41
CHAPTER V.
A Period of Rapid Growth, 1825-36 First Scientific Course
The Chapel Building Unsuccessful Appeals to the
Legislature Hours and Fines The President's
House, .......... 62
XX11 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE
Period of Reaction and Decline Resignation of President
Humphrey 86
CHAPTER VII.
Presidency of Dr. Hitchcock The Faculty Manage the
Finances First Foundations for Professorships New
Buildings Restored Prosperity Dr. Hitchcock's
Character, 109
CHAPTER VIII.
The Presidency of Dr. Stearns Scholarships and Prizes
New Buildings The College Church The Beginning
of the System for Physical Education The Walker
and other Professorships Optional Courses, . .139
CHAPTER IX.
The Civil War Record of Amherst 's Heroes The Com-
memorative Chime of Bells The Semi-Centennial
Celebration, 181
CHAPTER X.
Difficulties in Selecting President Stearns* Successor
Professor Seelye's Election Successful Opening of
His Administration Additions % to the Faculty The
Administration of President Seelye Inauguration of
the u Amherst System" Remarkable Prosperity of the
College, 198
CHAPTER XI.
The Burning of Walker Hall The Buildings Erected
during the Administration The "Amherst System"
Amherst College Reaches its Highest Prosperity
Resignation of President Seelye, .... 225
CONTENTS. XX111
CHAPTER XII.
PAGE
Athletics Gymnasium Exercises and "the Doctor" In-
tercollegiate Games College Societies The Greek-
Letter Fraternities, . . . ' . . . .252
CHAPTER XIII.
Religious History of Amherst Earlier Colleges and Uni-
versities, Founded from Religious Motives Decline
of Religious Spirit Colleges for Education of Minis-
ters Revivals at Amherst from 1823 to 1853, . . 266
CHAPTER XIV.
Religious History Continued Seven Revivals in the First
Twelve Years of President Stearns' Administration
In the Remaining Years Two In President Seelye's
Two Change in the Form and Manner, Not in the
Spirit Cause of the Change Remedy, . . .280
APPENDIX, , 293
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Portrait of Dr. W. S. Tyler, .... Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Amherst Academy, 4
First Congregational Meeting-house and Parsonage in
1788, 10
Amherst College in 1821, .... .18
Portrait of President Moore, . . . . . . 27 -
Amherst College in 1824, 34
Portrait of President Humphrey, 41
The Chapel and Dormitories, . . . . . .70
The President's House, 83
Portrait of President Hitchcock, 109
The Barrett Gymnasium, . . . . . . . 117
Woods Cabinet and Observatory, ..... 117
Portrait of President Stearns, 139
Appleton Cabinet, 146
Williston Hall, 149
The College Church .155
College Hall, 159
The Common, Looking toward Amherst College, . . 175
Portrait of President Seelye, . . ... .198
The Mather Art Collection, 220
Walker Hall, . .225
The Henry T. Morgan Library, 229
The Pratt Gymnasium, 231
The Chemical and Physical Laboratory Building, . . 233
Map of Amherst College Athletic Grounds, . . . 253
The Grand Stand on Pratt Field, 255
View from the College Library, 275
Map of Amherst College Grounds, 293
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
CHAPTER I.
THE QUEEN'S COLLEGE PROJECT FIRST ASSOCIATED
ACTION IN REGARD TO AMHERST COLLEGE AM-
HERST ACADEMY THE MOTHER OF AMHERST COL-
LEGE THE CHARITY FUND QUESTION OF THE
REMOVAL OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE.
THE want of a college in the valley of the Connec-
ticut was felt previous to the Revolution. Sixty
years before the establishment of the Charity Insti-
tution at Amherst, and thirty years before the incor-
poration of Williams College, measures were taken .
for founding an educational institution in Hampshire
County. Some of the inhabitants of that county pre-
sented to the General Court, January 20, 1762, a
memorial asking for a charter for this purpose, and a
bill was brought in, which, though passed to be en-
grossed, was finally defeated.
But shortly after, Francis Bernard, by virtue of his
position as " Governor of the Province of Massachu-
setts Bay," made out a charter incorporating Israel
Williams and eleven others " a body politic by the
name of the President and Fellows of Queen's Col-
lege." This charter bears the date of February 26,
2 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
1762, and the proposed college was to be in North-
ampton, Hatfield, or Hadley.
Nothing further ever came of this commendable
act of Governor Bernard. Sympathy for Harvard
College, at the time suffering from the loss by fire of
its library and philosophical apparatus, opposed the
establishment of another like institution in the prov-
ince, and the exciting times preceding the Revolu-
tionary War soon absorbed public attention to the
exclusion of other more peaceful. matters.
It was not, therefore, until a number of years later
that Williams College was founded, and still later
that we find on record the first associated action
looking toward the establishment of a college at Am-
herst. It was at a meeting of the Franklin County
Association of Ministers, held in Shelburne, in 1815.
This was six years before the college came into ex-
istence, and one year after the opening of Amherst
Academy, out of which the college grew. The as-
sociation, on mature deliberation, were of the opin-
ion that knowledge and virtue might be greatly sub-
served by an advanced literary institution situated in
their important section of the Commonwealth. They
were unanimousl) 7 * agreed that, all things considered,
the town of Amherst appeared to them the most
eligible place for locating it.
This decision is particularly worthy of notice be-
cause it was reached at a meeting held, not in Hamp-
shire County or even in the Connecticut Valley, but
among the mountains west of the valley, in which so
many great and good men have had their origin. In-
deed many of the members of the association rep-
resented churches which were very friendly to
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 3
Williams College, and one of the most prominent par-
ticipators in the discussion in favor of Amherst was
himself a trustee of Williams College.
Rev. Theophilus Packard, who was the prime
mover in this first associated action, and several
others of the earliest and most efficient friends of
Amherst College, were residents of Franklin County.
Rev. James Taylor of Sunderland became a member
of the corporation as it was first chosen and organ-
ized, and was a constant attendant of all its meet-
ings so long as he lived, a wise counsellor and a firm
supporter of the college in all the trials of the first
eleven years of its existence. Col. Rufus Graves,
its indefatigable agent, and Nathaniel Smith, its
most liberal donor in those early days, were both
members of Mr. Taylor's church, born in Sun-
derland and residing there when the establishment of
such an institution first began to be agitated. Dea-
con Elisha Billings of Conway, an educated man of
great zeal, wisdom and influence, threw himself into
the enterprise, and contributed largely to its success,
as will be seen very clearly a little later.
Amherst Academy was the mother of Amherst
College. The trustees of the academy became also
trustees of the college, and the records of the acad-
emy are the records of the college during the
first four years of its existence. The founding and
erecting of Amherst Academy kept pace with the
origin and progress of the last war with Great Britain.
The subscription was started in 1812, when that war
was declared; the academy went into operation in
December, 1814, the same year and the same month
in which the peace was signed ; and it was fully
4 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
dedicated with illuminations and public rejoicings
in 1815, when the return of peace was known and
hailed with joy in this country, especially in New
England. The charter was not obtained, however,
till 1816, having been delayed by opposition in Am-
herst, and in the neighboring towns, of the -same
kind and partly from the very same sources as that
which the college encountered in later years.
It opened with more students than any other acad-
emy in Western Massachusetts, and soon attracted
pupils from every part of New England. It had at
one time ninety pupils in the young women's depart-
ment, and quite as many, usually more, in the young
men's. It was the Williston Seminary and the Mount
Holyoke of that day united. Mary Lyon, the founder
of Mount Holyoke Seminary, was a member of Am-
herst Academy in 1821. There were usually from
seventy-five to one hundred students in the classical
department, and in the first year of Simeon Colton's
administration, the writer, who was his assistant,
well remembers that we sent about thirty to college,
the larger part of whom entered at Amherst. Prior
to the existence of Williston Seminary, and during
the depression of Phillips Academy at Andover, in
the declining years of Principal Adams, if not still
earlier, Amherst Academy, without dispute, held the
first position among the academies of Massachusetts.
But the subsequent prosperity of Phillips Academy,
the establishment of Williston Seminary, and the rise
of normal schools and high schools in all the large
towns, gradually drew off their students and thus their
support from Amherst and other comparatively un-
endowed academies, till one after another of them
AMhERST ACADEMY.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 5
became extinct. Amherst Academy did a great and
good work in and of itself, for which many who were
educated there and not a few who were spiritually
" born" there, will bless God forever. But the best
work which it did, and which, it is believed, will per-
petuate its memory and its influence, was the found-
ing of Amherst College.
In view of the elevated literary and Christian char-
acter of Amherst Academy, and its extraordinary
success as already described, it is not surprising that
its founders soon felt themselves called upon to make
higher and larger provision for educational purposes.
At the annual meeting of the board of trustees, on
the 1 8th of November, 1817, a project formed by
Rufus Graves, Esq. , was adopted for increasing the
usefulness of the academy, by raising a fund for the
gratuitous instruction of " indigent young men of
promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall mani-
fest a desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole
view to the Christian ministry."
A committee appointed for the purpose entered
with zeal and alacrity upon the effort to raise money
for the endowment of a professorship of languages,
and prosecuted it for several months. Their ardent
and indefatigable chairman, Colonel Graves, went to
Boston and other large towns, and labored day and
night to accomplish the object. But "they found,"
in the language of Mr. Webster's narrative of the
proceedings, " that the establishment of a single pro-
fessorship was too limited an object to induce men to
subscribe. To engage public patronage, it was found
necessary to form a plan for the education of young
men for the ministry on a more extensive scale."
6 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
These considerations determined the committee to
enlarge their plan, and to aim not merely at the en-
dowment of a professorship in the academy, but at
the raising of a fund which should be the basis of a
separate institution of a higher grade. They accord-
ingly framed and reported a " constitution and system
of by-laws for raising and managing a permanent
charity fund as the basis of an institution in Am-
herst, in the county of Hampshire, for the classical
education of indigent ) r oung men of piety and talents
for the Christian ministry." The board of trustees
at their meeting on the i8th of August, 1818, unani-
mously accepted this report, approved the doings of
the committee, and authorized them to take such
measures and communicate with such persons and
corporations as they might judge expedient.
The fund which was thus inaugurated became the
corner-stone of the Charity Institution and "the
sheet-anchor" of the college as it was often called
by the professors and friends of the college amid
the storms which it afterward encountered. No
document sheds so much light on the motives of the
founders of the institution as this constitution of the
charity fund. It therefore merits careful considera-
tion.
The constitution is drawn up in due form as a legal
document, l with much minuteness of detail, and with
1 Colonel Graves consulted Jeremiah Mason and Daniel
Webster as to the legal character of the constitution, and they
both said it was a legal instrument, binding in law on the
subscribers ; and so it was decided by the Supreme Court,
when, for the sake of testing it, one of the subscribers refused
to pay.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 7
every possible safeguard against the loss or perver-
sion of the fund, or the neglect of duty on the part
of those who are charged with the care and manage-
ment of it. The first article fixes the location of the
Institution at Amherst, and provides for the incor-
poration of Williams College with it, should it con-
tinue to be thought expedient to remove that insti-
tution to the county of Hampshire and to locate it
in the town of Amherst. The second article contains
a promise of the subscribers to pay the sums annexed
to their names for the purpose of raising a permanent
fund, to the amount of at least fifty thousand dollars,
as the basis of a fund for the proposed institution,
provided that, in case the sums subscribed in the
course of one year shall not amount to the full sum
of fifty thousand dollars, then the whole, or any part,
shall be void according to the will of any subscriber
on giving three months' notice. The third provides
that five-sixths of the interest of the fund shall be
forever appropriated to the classical education in the
institution of indigent pious young men for the min-
istry, and the other sixth shall be added to the prin-
cipal for its perpetual increase, while the principal
itself shall be secured intact and perpetually aug-
menting. Article fourth directs that the property
of the fund shall be secured by real estate or invested
in funds of Massachusetts, or the United States, or
some other safe public stocks. Article fifth vests the
management and appropriation of the fund, accord-
ing to the provisions of the constitution and by-laws,
in the trustees of Amherst Academy, until the con-
templated classical institution is established and in-
corporated, and then in the board of trustees of said
8 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
institution and their successors forever. Article
sixth provides for the appointment of a board of
overseers of the fund, a skilful financier, and an au-
ditor. Article seventh requires the trustees to ap-
point a financier who shall be sworn to the faithful
discharge of his duty, under sufficient bonds, and
subject to be removed at their discretion. This
financier, however, shall not be their own treasurer,
that is, the treasurer of the Institution, who shall be
ineligible to that office. This article also prescribes
the duties of the trustees in regard to the fund, such
as examining candidates for its charities, keeping a
correct record of the amount of the fund, the manner
in which it is invested and secured, their receipts and
disbursements from it, and all their proceedings in
reference to it. Article eighth prescribes minutely
the duties of the financier in receiving and investing
moneys, managing and guarding the fund, paying
over the interest, as provided in article third, into
the treasury of the Institution, taking triplicate re-
ceipts, one to keep for his own security, one to de-
posit with the secretary of the board of trustees, and
the third with the auditor; keeping an accurate ac-
count of the whole fund and every part of it, and re-
porting the same annually to the board of trustees.
The ninth article provides that the financier shall be
paid from the avails of the fund a reasonable sum
for his services and responsibility. The tenth pre-
scribes the manner in which the overseers of the fund
shall be appointed and perpetuated, viz. : the four
highest subscribers to the fund shall appoint each of
them one, and the other three shall be elected by a
majority of the votes of the other subscribers who
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 9
may assemble for that purpose. Then the board
shall perpetuate their existence as such by filling
their own vacancies. In case the board shall at any
future time become extinct, the Governor and Council
of this Commonwealth are expressly authorized to
appoint a new board. Article eleventh provides for
the appointment of an auditor by the board of over-
seers, and prescribes at great length the duties of
that board. They are required to visit the institu-
tion at its annual commencement, to receive and ex-
amine the reports of the trustees and the auditor, and
to inspect the records, files and vouchers of the trus-
tees and the financier, and in view of all the facts, to
decide whether the fund has been skilfully managed,
and its avails faithfully applied according to the will
of the donors. Article twelfth prescribes the duties
of the auditor. Article thirteenth provides for the
amendment of the constitution and system of by-laws
by the concurrent action of the board of trustees and
the board of overseers, " so, however, as not to de-
viate from the original object of civilizing and evan-
gelizing the world by the classical education of indi-
gent young men of piety and talents," "nor without
the majority of two-thirds of the members of the said
board of trustees, and five-sevenths of the said board
of overseers."
Article fourteenth reads as follows : " In order to
prevent the loss or destruction of this constitution by
any wicked design, by fire, or by the ravages of time,
it shall be the duty of the trustees of said institution,
as soon as the aforesaid sum of fifty thousand dollars
shall be hereunto subscribed, to cause triplicate copies
of the same, together with the names of the subscrib-
IO A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ers and the sum subscribed annexed to each name,
to be taken fairly written on vellum, one of which to
be preserved in the archives of said institution, one
in the archives of said board of overseers, and the
other in the archives of this Commonwealth. And
in case of the loss or destruction of either of said
copies, its deficiency shall be immediately supplied
by an attested copy from one of the others. "
In order to secure the approval and co-operation of
the Christian community to an extent commensurate
with the magnitude of the undertaking, the trustees
of Amherst Academy, at a meeting held on the loth
of September, 1818, resolved to call a convention of
" the Congregational and Presbyterian clergy of the
several parishes in the counties of Hampshire, Frank-
lin, and Hampden and the western section of the
county of Worcester, with their delegates, together
with one delegate from each vacant parish, and the
subscribers to the fund. "
On the 29th of September, 1818, in accordance with
this invitation, the convention met in the church in
the west parish of Amherst. Thirty-seven towns
were represented, sixteen in Hampshire County,
thirteen in Franklin, four in Hampden and four in
Worcester. Most of the parishes were represented
by both a pastor and a lay delegate. Thirty-six
clergymen and thirty-two laymen composed the con-
vention. The constitution and by-laws of the pro-
posed institution were read, and, after some discus-
sion, the whole subject was referred to a committee
of twelve. In the afternoon, a sermon was delivered
before the convention by Dr. Lyman. The next
morning, September 30, the committee presented
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. II
their report. They express in strong language their
approval of the constitution, as the fruit of much
judicious reflection, and guarding as a legal instru-
ment, in the most satisfactory and effectual manner,
the faithful and appropriate application of the prop-
erty consecrated by the donors. They had no hesi-
tation in recommending Hampshire County as one of
the most eligible situations for such an institution.
In regard to the particular town in Hampshire
County, while they thought favorably of Amherst,
the committee were of the opinion that it would be
expedient to leave that question to the decision of a
disinterested committee appointed by the convention.
The preamble of this report, expressing the gen-
eral views of the committee, was promptly accepted
by the convention. But on those points in the reso-
lutions which touched the location of the institution
an animated debate arose and continued through the
morning and afternoon sessions. Able arguments
and eloquent appeals were made for and against fix-
ing the site definitely at Amherst. Local feelings
and interests doubtless influenced the speakers more
or less on both sides of the question. The most vio-
lent opposition came from some of the churches and
parishes in the immediate vicinity of Amherst. Sev-
eral delegates from the west side of the river, includ-
ing those from Northampton, contended ably and
earnestly in favor of locating the institution at North-
ampton. The discussion was carried from the con-
vention to the families where the members were
entertained, and there are still living those who well
remember that the excitement ran so high as to dis-
turb their sleep long after the hour of midnight.
12 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The people of Amherst were deeply moved. The
house was filled with anxious spectators. Business
was almost suspended. The academy took a recess,
and teachers and pupils hung with breathless interest
on the debate. " Until noon of the second day of the
convention," I use the language of one who was
then a student in the academy and an eye-witness, 1
" the weight of argument was in favor of North-
ampton, and things looked blue for a location in
Amherst. In the afternoon, Samuel Fowler Dickin-
son, taking his position in the aisle of the old church,
laid himself out, in one of the most powerful and
telling speeches which were made on this occasion,
gaining the full attention of the whole convention,
and no doubt greatly influencing many in their votes.
After which, George Grennell, who was secretary of
the convention, left his seat, taking his place in the
aisle, and also delivered a very powerful and effective
speech, still keeping the full attention of the conven-
tion. These two speeches produced a new and dif-
ferent feeling throughout the house, and the result,
when the vote was taken, was in favor of Amherst as
a location for the institution."
The enterprise was thus fairly launched, and the
raising of money was prosecuted with such zeal and
success that, at a special meeting of the trustees of
Amherst Academy, in July, 1819, a committee ap-
pointed to examine the subscription reported that
the money and other property amounted, at a fair
estimate, to fifty-one thousand four hundred and four
dollars, thus making more than the sum proposed in
less than the time allowed by the constitution.
1 D. W. Norton, Esq., of Suffield, Conn.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 13
As early as 1815, six years before the opening of
Amherst College, the question of removing Williams
College to some more central part of Massachusetts
was agitated among its friends and in its board of
trustees. At that time Williams College had two
buildings and fifty-eight students, with two professors
and two tutors. The library contained fourteen hun-
dred volumes. The funds were reduced and the in-
come fell short of the expenditures. Many of the
friends and supporters of the college were fully per-
suaded that it could not be sustained in its present
location. The chief ground of this persuasion was
the extreme difficulty of access to it.
At the same meeting of the board of trustees at
which Professor Moore was elected president of Wil-
liams College, May 2, 1815, Dr. Packard of Shelburne
introduced the following motion : " That a committee
of six persons be appointed to take into consideration
the removal of the college to some other part of the
Common wealth, to make all necessary inquiries which
have a bearing on the subject, and report at the next
meeting." The motion was adopted, and at the next
meeting of the board in September, the committee
reported that " a removal of Williams College from
Williamstown is inexpedient at the present time, and
under existing circumstances. "
But the question of removal thus raised in the
board of trustees and thus negatived only " at the
present time and under existing circumstances, " con-
tinued to be agitated. And at a meeting on the loth
of November, 1818, influenced more or less doubtless
lay the action of the Franklin County Association of
Congregational Ministers, and the Convention of
14 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Congregational and Presbyterian Ministers in Am-
herst, the board of trustees resolved that it was ex-
pedient to remove the college on certain conditions.
President Moore advocated the removal, and even
expressed his purpose to resign the office of president
unless it could be effected, inasmuch as when he
accepted the presidency he had no idea that the
college was to remain at Williamstown, but was au-
thorized to expect that it would be removed to Hamp-
shire County. Nine out of twelve of the trustees
voted for the resolutions, which were as follows :
" Resolved, that it is expedient to remove Williams
College to some more central part of the State when-
ever sufficient funds can be obtained to defray the
necessary expenses incurred and the losses sustained
by removal, and to secure the prosperity of the col-
lege, and when a fair prospect shall be presented of
obtaining for the institution the united support and
patronage of the friends of literature and religion in
the western part of the Commonwealth, and when the
General Court shall give their assent to the measure. "
In November, 1819, the trustees of Williams Col-
lege voted to petition the Legislature for permission
to remove the college to Northampton. To this ap-
plication, Mr. Webster says, "the trustees of Amherst
Academy made no opposition and took no measures
to defeat it." In February, 1820, the petition was
laid before the Legislature. The committee from
both houses, to whom it was referred, after a careful
examination of the whole subject, reported that it
was neither lawful nor expedient to remove the
college, and the Legislature, taking the same view,
rejected the petition. The trustees of Amherst
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. I 5
Academy, who had been quietly awaiting the issue
of the application, judged that the way was now open
for them to proceed with their original design ac-
cording to the advice of the convention, and at their
meeting in March, 1820, they took measures for col-
lecting the subscriptions to the charity fund, raising
additional subscriptions, erecting a suitable build-
ing, and opening the institution as soon as possible
for the reception of students. Thus the long and ex-
citing discussion touching the removal of Williams
College and the location of a college in some more
central town of old Hampshire County at length
came to an end, and the contending parties now di-
rected all their energies to building up the institu-
tions of their choice.
Few questions have agitated the good people of
Western Massachusetts more generally or more deeply
than this. Whether one college would have been bet-
ter than two for Western Massachusetts, and if there
was to be but one, whether that one should have
been at Williamstown, Northampton, or Amherst, are
questions which we are not now called to answer.
But that these good men had the best interests of
learning and religion at heart and were foreseeing
and far-seeing beyond most men in their generation
we have no doubt. They certainly did not overesti-
mate the importance of a college in Hampshire
County, and their wise plans and persevering efforts
have resulted, under the overruling providence of
God, in the upbuilding of two colleges, each of which
has far exceeded not only the one which then ex-
isted, but the most sanguine hopes of the founders
of either, in its prosperity and usefulness.
CHAPTER II.
ERECTION OF THE FIRST COLLEGE EDIFICE INAUGURA-
TION OF THE PRESIDENT AND PROFESSORS AND
OPENING OF THE COLLEGE.
AT a meeting of the board of trustees of Amherst
Academy, May 10, 1820, it was voted "that Samuel
F. Dickinson, H. W. Strong, and Nathaniel Smith,
Esquires, Dr. Rufus Cowles, and Lieut. Enos Ba-
ker be a committee to secure a good and sufficient
title to the ten acres of land conditionally conveyed
to the trustees of this academy as the site of said in-
stitution by the late Col. Elijah Dickinson, and for
the special benefit of the charity fund ; to digest a
plan of a suitable building for said institution; to
procure subscriptions, donations, or contributions for
defraying the expense thereof; to prepare the ground
and erect the same as soon as the necessary means can
be furnished, the location to be made with the ad-
vice and consent of the prudential committee." At
this meeting it was further resolved " that great and
combined exertions of the Christian public are neces-
sary to give due effect to the Charity Institution ;"
and Joshua Crosby, Jonathan Grout, James Taylor,
Edwards Whipple, John Fiske, and Joseph Vaill were
appointed agents to make application for additional
funds, and for contributions to aid in erecting suit-
able buildings for the accommodation of students.
16
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. I/
The committee proceeded at once to execute the
trust committed to them, secured a title to the land,
marked out the ground for the site of a building, the
present South College, one hundred feet long, thirty
feet wide and four stories high, and invited the hi'
habitants of Amherst friendly to the object to con-
tribute labor and materials, with provisions for the
workmen. With this request, the inhabitants of Am-
herst friendly to the institution, together with some
from Pelham and Leverett and a few from Belcher-
town and Hadley, cheerfully complied. Occasional
contributions were also received from more distant
towns, even on the mountains. The stone for the
foundation was brought chiefly from Pelham by gra-
tuitous labor, 1 and provisions for the workmen were
furnished by voluntary contributions. Donations of
lime, sand, lumber, materials of all kinds, flowed in
from every quarter. Teams for hauling, and men for
handling and tending, and unskilled labor of every
sort, were provided in abundance. Whatever could
be contributed gratuitously was furnished without
money and without price. The people not only con-
tributed in kind but turned out in person, and some-
times camped on the ground and labored day and
night, for they had a mind to work like the Jews in
building their temple, and they felt that they too
1 The same gentleman, a native of Pelham, who has recently
endowed the scholarship of the first class the class of 1822
more than fifty years ago brought the first load of stone upon
the ground as a free-will offering. "That gentleman was
Wells Southworth, Esq. , of New Haven, Conn. Those gran-
ite blocks are now in the foundations of the old South College."
Professor Snell's address at the Semi-Centennial.
1 8 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
were building the Lord's house. The horse-sheds
which then ran along the whole line, east of the
church, and west of the land devoted to the college,
were removed. The old Virginia fence disappeared.
Plow and scraper, pick-axe, hoe, and shovel, were all
put in requisition together to level the ground for
the building and dig the trenches for the walls. It
was a busy and stirring scene such as the quiet town
of Amherst had never before witnessed, and which
the old men and aged women of the town, who par-
ticipated in it when they were boys and girls, were
never weary of relating. The foundations were
speedily laid. On the pth of August they were nearly
completed and ready for the laying of the corner-
stone. The walls went up, if possible, still more
rapidly. We doubt if there has been anything like
it in modern times. Certainly we have never seen
or read of a parallel. The story, as told by eye-
witnesses and actors, is almost incredible. " Not-
withstanding," says Noah Webster, 1 a man who was
not given to exaggeration, "notwithstanding the
building committee had no funds for erecting the
building, not even a cent, except what were to be
derived from gratuities in labor, materials, and pro-
visions, yet they prosecuted the work with untiring
diligence. Repeatedly, during the progress of the
work, their means were exhausted, and they were
obliged to notify the president of the board that they
could proceed no further. On these occasions the
president called together the trustees, or a number
1 Mr. Webster removed in 1812 from New Haven to Amherst,
where he spent ten of the most laborious and fruitful years of
his life on his great life-work, the American Dictionary.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 19
of them, who, by subscriptions of their own, and by
renewed solicitation for voluntary contributions, en-
abled the committee to prosecute the work. And
such were the exertions of the board, the committee
and the friends of the institution that on the ninetieth
day from the laying of the corner-stone, the roof
timbers were erected on the building."
"It seemed," exclaims President Humphrey, "it
seemed more like magic than the work of the crafts-
men ! Only a few weeks ago the timber was in the
forest, the brick in the clay, and the stone in the
quarry!"
The college well was dug at the same time and in
very much the same way that well from which so
many generations of students have since drunk health
and refreshment, and which is usually one of the
first things that an Amherst alumnus seeks when he
revisits his alma mater. And "when the roof and
chimneys were completed, the bills unpaid and un-
provided for were less than thirteen hundred dollars."
Here the work was suspended for the winter. But
it was resumed in the spring, and then the interior
of the building was finished by similar means, and
with almost equal dispatch.
By the middle of June the building was so nearly
completed that the trustees made arrangements for
its dedication in connection with the inauguration of
the president and professors, and the opening of the
institution in September. And before the end of
September, not only was the edifice finished, but
about half of the rooms were furnished for the recep-
tion of students, through the agency of churches and
benevolent individuals, especially of the ladies in
2O A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
different towns in Hampshire and the adjoining
counties.
We must now go back to give some account of the
exercises at the laying of the corner-stone, the ap-
pointment of officers of the institution, and other
measures preliminary to the dedication and the
opening.
The following is the order of exercises at the lay-
ing of the corner-stone substantially as it was given
to the public shortly after the occasion : " On the 9th
of August, 1820, the board of trustees of Amherst
Academy, together with the subscribers to the fund
then present, a number of the neighboring clergy
and the preceptors and students of the academy, pre-
ceded by the building committee and the workmen,
moved in procession from the academy to the ground
of the Charity Institution. The Throne of Grace was
then addressed by Rev. Mr. Crosby of Enfield, and
the ceremony of laying the corner-stone was per-
formed by the Rev. Dr. Parsons, president of the
board, in presence of a numerous concourse of spec-
tators ; after which an address was delivered by Noah
Webster, Esq. , vice-president of the board. The as-
sembly then proceeded to the church, where an ap-
propriate introductory prayer was made by the Rev.
Mr. Porter of Belchertown, a sermon delivered by
the Rev. Daniel A. Clark of Amherst, and the ex-
ercises concluded with prayer by the Rev. Mr.
Grout of Hawley. The performances of the day
were interesting, and graced with excellent music."
On the same day, at a meeting of the subscribers
to the fund, they having been duly notified, the Rev.
Nathaniel Howe of Hopkinton being chosen moder-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 21
ator, and the Rev. Moses Miller of Heath, secretary,
the meeting was opened with prayer by the moder-
ator, and the following gentlemen were then elected
overseers of the fund, namely: Henry Gray, Esq.,
of Boston, Gen. Salem Towne, Jr., of Charlton, Rev.
Theophilus Packard of Shelburne, Rev. Thomas
Snell of North Brookfield, Rev. Luther Sheldon of
Easton, Rev. Heman Humphrey of Pittsfield, and
H. Wright Strong, Esq., of Amherst.
The board of trustees of Amherst Academy at this
time, who acted as trustees of the charity fund, was
composed of the following members: Rev. David
Parsons, president; Noah Webster, vice-president;
Rev. James Taylor, Rev. Joshua Crosby, Rev. Daniel
A. Clark, Nathaniel Smith, Esq., Samuel F. Dickin-
son, and Rufus Graves. After the public exercises
of this occasion, Dr. Parsons resigned his seat in the
board, and Noah Webster was elected president of
the board.
By request of the trustees the address of Mr. Web-
ster and the sermon of Mr. Clark were both printed
and published. In reading them, no thought strikes
us so forcibly as the philanthropic, Christian, and
missionary spirit of the founders.
The connection between the Charity Institution
at Amherst, and those education societies which had
sprung up a little earlier and were born of the same
missionary spirit, could not but be very intimate and
productive of most important results. As early as
September, 1820, a committee of the trustees was
directed to correspond with the American Education
Society on the subject of the terms on which the
board might co-operate with that society in the edu-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
cation of their beneficiaries. At a meeting of the
board in November, 1820, the trustees passed a vote
authorizing the prudential committee to receive into
the academy as beneficiaries from education societies
or elsewhere, charity students, not exceeding twenty.
In June, 1821, they voted that persons wishing to
avail themselves of the charity fund as beneficiaries
should be under the patronage of some education so-
ciety or other respectable association which should
furnish to each beneficiary a part of his support,
amounting at least to one dollar a week, for which
he was to be furnished with board and tuition. They
required also, that every applicant should produce to
the examining committee satisfactory evidence of
his indigence, piety and promising talents.
As the constitution required that the charity fund
should forever be kept separate from the other funds
of the institution, and under another financier, at a
meeting November 8, 1820, the trustees appointed
John Leland as their agent to receive all donations
made for the benefit of the Charity Institution, other
than those made to the permanent fund. For this
office, which he held fourteen years, Mr. Lei and never
received a salary of more than three hundred dollars.
At the same time the commissioner of the charity
fund received only two hundred dollars per annum
for his services. It will be seen that the institution
commenced on a basis of economy, in reference both
to its officers and its students, which corresponded
with its charitable object.
At a meeting of the trustees of Amherst Academy
on the 8th of May, 1821, it was "Voted unanimously,
That the Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore be, and he is
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 23
hereby, elected president of the Charity Institution
in this town.
" Voted, That the permanent salary of the president
of this institution for his services as president and
professor of theology and moral philosophy be
twelve hundred dollars, and that he is entitled to
the usual perquisites."
At the same time the trustees resolved to build a
house for the president, provided they could procure
sufficient donations of money, materials, and labor.
They also decided that the first term of study in the
institution should commence on the third Wednesday
of September. It is worthy of record that at this
meeting they passed a vote prohibiting the students
from drinking ardent spirits or wine, or any liquor
of which ardent spirits or wine should be the princi-
pal ingredient, at any inn, tavern, or shop, or keep-
ing ardent spirits or wine in their rooms, or at any
time indulging in the use of them. Thus early was
temperance as well as economy established as one of
the characteristic and fundamental principles of the
institution. It is an interesting coincidence that at
this meeting in May, when President Moore was
elected to the presidency, the Rev. Heman Humphrey
of Pittsfield, who was destined to succeed him in the
office, preached in accordance with a previous ap-
pointment "a very appropriate and useful sermon,"
for which he received " an address of thanks" by vote
of the trustees.
In his letter of acceptance, dated Williamstown,
June 12, 1821, President Moore insists that the classi-
cal education of the students shall be thorough. " I
should be wholly averse," he says, "to becoming
24 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
united with any institution which proposes to give a
classical education inferior to that given in any of
the colleges in New England. On this subject I am
assured your opinion is the same as my own, and that
you are determined that the course of study in the
institution to which you have invited me shall not
be inferior to that in the colleges in New England."
That the trustees were in perfect unison with the
president in regard to these vital points to which he
attached so much importance, they showed by voting
in their meeting on the thirteenth day of June that
the preparatory studies or qualifications of candidates
for admission to the Charity Institution, and the
course of studies to be pursued during the four years
of membership, should be the same as those estab-
lished in Yale College. And that the public might
not be left in doubt on these points, the president of
the board soon after gave public notice in the news-
papers, that " Young men who expect to defray the
expenses of their education, will be admitted into the
collegiate institution on terms essentially the same
as those prescribed for admission into other colleges
in New England/'
At the same session, the trustees elected the Rev.
Gamaliel S. Olds to be professor of mathematics and
natural philosophy, and Joseph Estabrook to be pro-
fessor of the Greek and Latin languages, and voted
that the president and professors elect should be in-
augurated and the college edifice dedicated with
suitable religious services on the Tuesday next pre-
ceding the third Wednesday of September, and that
Professor Stuart of Andover be invited to preach
the dedication sermon.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 25
At the time appointed, the i8th of September,
1821, the exercises of dedication and of inauguration
were held in the parish church. After introductory re-
marks by Noah Webster, Esq. , president of the board,
in which he recognized the peculiar propriety " that
an undertaking having for its special object the pro-
motion of the religion of Christ should be commended
to the favor and protection of the great Head of the
Church," and its buildings and funds solemnly dedi-
cated to his service, a dedicatory prayer was offered
by the Rev. Mr. Crosby of Enfield, and a sermon was
preached by the Rev. Dr. Leland of Charleston, S. C., 1
from the text: " On this rock will I build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
President Moore and Professor Estabrook, 2 having
publicly signified their acceptance and their assent
to the confession of faith 3 which had been prepared
for the occasion, were then solemnly inducted into
their respective offices by the president of the board,
with promises of hearty co-operation and support by
the trustees, and earnest prayers for " the guidance
and protection of the great Head of the Church, to
whose service this institution is consecrated." A
brief address was then delivered by each of them,
1 " For special reasons, Professor Stuart declined to preach on
the occasion." Dr. Leland "was on a visit to his father, then
resident in Amherst." Dr. Webster' s Manuscript.
2 Professor Olds had signified his acceptance, but was not
present at the inauguration.
8 Of this confession of faith I find no record, except that it
was reported to the trustees by a committee appointed for the
purpose immediately previous to the exercises of inauguration.
The committee consisted of the Rev. Zephaniah S. Moore, the
Rev. Thomas Snell, and the Rev. Daniel A. Clark.
26 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
and the concluding prayer was offered by the Rev.
Mr. Snell of North Brookfield. At the close of the
exercises a collection was made for the benefit of the
institution; and the corner-stone of the president's
house was laid with the usual ceremonies.
The next day, September 19, the college was
opened and organized by the examination and ad-
mission of forty-seven students, some into each of the
four regular classes. Of this number fifteen followed
Dr. Moore from Williams College, a little less than
one-third of the whole number at Amherst, and a
little less than one-fifth of the whole number in the
three classes to which they belonged in Williams
College. This was "a larger number, I believe,"
says Dr. Humphrey, " than ever had been matricu-
lated on the first day of opening any new college.
It was a day of great rejoicings. What had God
wrought!"
iSE
OF THE
[VERSITT
J
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST PRESIDENCY FIRST CATALOGUE AND COURSE
OF STUDY THE LITERARY SOCIETIES EARLY AM-
HERST DEATH OF PRESIDENT MOORE.
FIRST things, whether they are the first in the his-
tory of the world, or only the first in a country, or
a town, or an institution, besides their intrinsic
value, have a relative interest and importance which
justify and perhaps require the historian to dwell
upon them at greater length.
The first edifice of the Charity Institution, as we
have seen in the foregoing chapter, was the present
South College. Although it was erected so rapidly
and finished and furnished to so great an extent by
voluntary contributions of labor and material, it was
one of the best built, and is to this day one of the
best preserved and most substantial of all the build-
ings on the grounds. The rooms were originally
large, square, single rooms, without any bedrooms,
and served the double purpose of a dormitory and a
study. A full quarter of a century elapsed before
bed-rooms were placed in South College. Some of
the rooms, besides serving as sleeping-rooms and
studies for their occupants, were also of necessity
used for a time as recitation-rooms for the classes.
Thus the room of Pindar Field and Ebenezer S. Snell,
the two seniors who for some time constituted the
senior class it was the room in the southwest corner
27
28 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
of the fourth story was the senior recitation-room,
and there President Moore daily met and instructed
his first senior class. Four chairs constituted the
whole furniture and apparatus of this first recitation-
room. The library, which at this time was all con-
tained in a single case scarcely six feet wide, was at
first placed in the north entry of the same building,
the old South College.
Morning and evening prayers were at first attended
in the old village "meeting-house," which then occu-
pied the site of the observatory, and was considered
one of the best church edifices in Hampshire County.
The relations between the students and the families
in the village were in the highest degree confidential
and affectionate, and the letters which the author has
received from the alumni of those halcyon days, al-
though the writers have already reached their three-
score years and ten, still read very much like love-
letters.
The bell of the old parish meeting-house continued
to summon the students to all their exercises till, ere
long, one was presented to the college. A coarse,
clumsy, wooden tower or frame was erected between
the college and the meeting-house to receive this first
college bell. This tower, then one of the most re-
markable objects on College Hill, became the butt of
ridicule and was at length capsized by the students,
and the bell was finally transferred to the new chapel.
The growing popularity and prosperity of the in-
stitution soon made it manifest that it would require
more ample accommodations. In the summer of
1822, the president's house, now owned and occupied
by the Psi Upsilon Society, was completed. About
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2Q
the same time a second edifice was commenced, and a
subscription of thirty thousand dollars was opened
to pay debts already contracted, to finish the new
building, and to defray other necessary expenses. At
the opening of the second term of the second colle-
giate year in the winter of 1822-23, this edifice, the
present North College, was already completed and
occupied for the first time. The rooms were not all
filled, however, and, for some time, unoccupied
rooms were rented to students of the academy.
Still "no room was furnished with a carpet, only
one with blinds, and not half a dozen were painted."
The two corner rooms in the south entry and fourth
story of this new building, being left without any
partition between themselves or between them and
the adjoining entry, were now converted into a hall
which served at once for a chapel and a lecture-room,
where lectures on the physical sciences followed the
morning and evening devotions, thus uniting learn-
ing and religion according to the original design of
the institution, but where the worship was some-
times disturbed by too free a mixture of acids and
gases. The two middle rooms adjoining this hall
were also appropriated to public uses, one of them
becoming the place where the library was now de-
posited, and the other the first cabinet for chemical
and philosophical apparatus.
A semi-official notice in "The Boston Recorder,"
dated October i, 1821, announces that "a college
library is begun, and now contains nearly seven
hundred volumes. A philosophical apparatus is pro-
vided for, and it is expected will be procured the
coming winter."
30 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The first lectures in chemistry were given by
Colonel Graves, who had been a lecturer in the
same department previously, at Dartmouth College.
These lectures were delivered in a private room used
as a lecture-room in South College. It was quite
an enlargement and sign of progress when Professor
Eaton began to lecture to all the classes together in
the new hall in the new North College.
The first " Catalogue of the Faculty and Students
of the Collegiate Institution, Amherst, Mass.," was
issued in March, 1822, that is, about six months
after the opening. It was a single sheet, about
twelve by fourteen inches in size, and printed only
on one side, like a hand-bill. In this, as in many
other things, Amherst followed the example of Wil-
liams College, whose catalogue, issued in 1795, ac-
cording to Dr. Robbins, the antiquarian, was the
first catalogue of the members of a college published
in this country. The faculty, as their names and
titles were printed on this catalogue, consisted of
Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore, D.D., president and
professor of divinity; Rev. Gamaliel S. Olds,
A.M., professor of mathematics and natural philos-
ophy; Joseph Estabrook, A.M., professor of lan-
guages and librarian; Rev. Jonas King, A.M.,
professor of oriental literature; and Lucius Field,
A. B., tutor. But the professor of oriental lan-
guages was never installed, and the instruction was
all given by the president with two professors and
one tutor. The president was not only the sole
teacher of the senior class, but gave instruction also
to the sophomores. The number of students had
now increased from forty-seven to fifty-nine, viz. :
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 31
three seniors, six juniors, nineteen sophomores, and
thirty-one freshmen. But dissatisfied with this
hand-bill, they issued in the same month of the
same year (March, 1822), the same catalogue of
names, in the form of a pamphlet of eight pages,
which contained, besides the names of the faculty
and students, the requirements for admission to the
freshman class, an outline of the course of study,
and a statement of the number of volumes in the
libraries of the institution and of the literary so-
cieties.
The requisites for admission into the freshman
class were the ability to construe and parse Virgil,
Cicero's Select Orations, Sallust, the Greek Testa-
ment, Dalzel's Collectanea Graeca Minora, a knowl-
edge of the Latin and Greek Grammars, and Vulgar
Arithmetic.
Course of Study. First Year. Livy, five books,
Adam's Roman Antiquities, Arithmetic, Webster's
Philosophical and Practical Grammar, Graeca Ma-
jora, the historical parts, Day's Algebra, Morse's
Geography, large abridgment, and Erving on Com-
position.
Second Year. Playfair's Euclid, Horace, expur-
gated edition, Day's Mathematics, Parts II., III.
and IV., Conic Sections and Spheric Geometry,
Cicero de Officiis, de Senectute and de Amicitia,
Graeca Majora, Jamieson's Rhetoric, and Hedge's
Logic.
Third Year. Spheric Trigonometry, Graeca Ma-
jora finished, Enfield's Philosophy, Cicero de Ora-
tore, Tacitus, five books, Tytler's History, Paley's
Evidences, Fluxions and Chemistr
LSE
OF THE
CVERSITY
32 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Fourth Year. Stewart's Philosophy of Mind,
Blair's Rhetoric, Locke abridged, Paley's Natural
Theology, Anatomy, Butler's Analogy, Paley's
Moral Philosophy, Edwards on the Will, Vattel's
Law of Nations, and Vincent on the Catechism.
Each of the classes had once a week, for a part of
the year, a critical recitation in the Greek Testa-
ment. All the classes had weekly exercises in
speaking and composition. The library belonging
to the institution contained nine hundred volumes,
and society libraries about four hundred volumes.
This catalogue was printed by Thomas W. Shepard
& Co., Northampton.
The annual catalogue for the second year,
printed by Denio & Phelps, at Greenfield, in Octo-
ber, 1822, was a pamphlet of twelve pages, and in
addition to the matter contained in that of the pre-
vious year, comprised the names of the overseers
of the fund, a brief calendar, and a statement of the
term bills and other necessary expenses. The over-
seers of the fund, whose names appear on the
catalogue, are Henry Gray, Esq., of Boston, Hon.
Salem Towne, Jr., of Charleton, H. Wright Strong,
Esq., of Amherst, Rev. Samuel Osgood of Spring-
field, Rev. Theophilus Packard of Shelburne, Rev.
Thomas Snell of Brookfield, and Rev. Luther Shel-
don of Easton. The faculty is the same as in the
previous catalogue, except that the names of Wil-
liam S. Burt, A.B., and Elijah L. Coe, A.B., appear
as tutors. They were both graduates of Union Col-
lege. The number of students had now increased to
ninety-eight, viz: 'senior sophisters," five; " junior
sophisters," twenty-one; sophomores, thirty-two,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 33
and freshmen, forty. The students' rooms are also
registered, N. standing for North College, and S.
for South College, on the catalogue.
The term bills, comprising tuition, and room -rent,
were from ten to eleven dollars a term. Beneficiaries
did not pay any term bills. Board was from one
dollar to one dollar twenty-five cents a week,
wood from one dollar fifty cents to two dollars a
cord, and washing from twelve to twenty cents a
week. "Motives of economy and of convenience/'
writes Dr. Chapin of the class of '26, "influenced
the first class of students very largely in coming to
Amherst. We all made our own fires and took the
entire care of our rooms ; most of us sawed our own
wood. My college course cost me eight hundred
dollars, which was a medium average, I should
think. The college grounds were rough and un-
adorned, and during all of my course had little done
to improve them. Each spring we had our * chip
day/ when the students in mass turned out to
scrape and clear up the grounds near the buildings."
The two literary societies, the Alexandrian and
the Athenian, were organized soon after the opening
of the institution. The members of the college
were all allotted to the two societies in alphabetical
order, the two seniors, Pindar Field and Ebenezer S.
Snell, placing themselves or being placed at the
head, the former of the Athenian and the latter of
the Alexandrian Society, and then reading off the
names of the members of the lower classes alter-
nately to the one or the other in the order of the
catalogue. Mr. Field was chosen the first president
of the Athenian Society, and Mr. Snell the first
34 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
president of the Alexandrian. The first meetings of
the societies were held in No. 3 and No. 6 in the
north entry of South College. In April, 1822, the
students in their poverty raised a small contribution,
less than $100, and sent Mr. Field to Hartford to
purchase a few books which were the beginning of
a library for the two societies, for they were then
not rival but affiliated societies and had their library
in common.
Prof. Charles U. Shepard of the class of '25 has
contributed the following graphic sketch of men and
things at Amherst in those early days :
" Amherst as it was then would be a strange place
to the residents in Amherst of nowadays. The good
clergymen who petitioned for its prosperity in
'college prayers ' delighted to call it 'a city set upon
a hill;' but they would have described its fashion
with quite as much exactness had they put forward
its claims to celestial notice as 'a village in the
woods/ Something more than a score of houses,
widely separated from each "other by prosperous
farms, constituted Amherst centre. Along two roads,
running north and south, were scattered small farm-
houses, with here and there a cross-road, blacksmith's
shop, or school-house by way of suburb. The East
Street, however, formed even then a pretty cluster of
houses, and had its meeting-house with a far comelier
tower than it boasts at the present day.
" But the fine dwellings, public or private, of that
early time had their features, whether tasteful or the
reverse, greatly concealed by the wide prevalence of
trees. Primal forests touched the rear of the college
buildings; they filled up with a sea of waving
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 35
branches the great interval between the village and
Hadley; toward the south they prevailed gloriously,
sending their green waves around the base and tip
the sides of Mt. Holyoke ; to the east, they overspread
the Pelham slope; and they fairly inundated vast
tracts northward clear away to the lofty hills of Sun-
derland and Deerfield. It was a sublime deluge,
which, alas! has only too much subsided in our day."
After some appreciative notice of the instructions,
character, and influence of Presidents Moore and
Humphrey, and the chemical and botanical lectures
of Prof. Amos Eaton, Professor Shepard concludes:
" Such were our chief advantages as I now recollect
them. At the time we rated them highly ; few left
Amherst for other colleges. Nor do I know that any
have since regretted connecting themselves with the
infant institution. There were doubtless deficiencies
to be regretted. In the larger and older universities
we might have found better teachers and richer stores
of libraries and collections, but in some unknown
way, perhaps in the enthusiasm of comparatively
solitary effort, compensation was made ; and, on the
whole, we may doubt whether higher life success
would have attended us had we launched from other
ports. "
The students of Amherst, in those early days, were
comparatively free from exciting and distracting cir-
cumstances. There were then here no cattle-shows
or horse-races, no menageries, circuses, or even con-
certs of music. They had no " Greek Letter" socie-
ties, no class day, and no class elections and class
politics to divide and distract them. They came
here to study, and they had nothing else to do. They
36 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
felt that their advantages were inferior to those of
older and richer institutions, but for that very rea-
son they felt that they must "make themselves/'
The " Exercises at the First Anniversary of the
Collegiate Charity Institution at Amherst" were held
in the old "meeting-house" on the 28th of August,
1822. After sacred music, and prayer by the presi-
dent, a salutatory in Latin was pronounced by Eben-
ezer S. Snell. His classmate, Pindar Field, deliv-
ered the concluding oration in English. There was
no valedictory. The members of the junior class,
then six in number, helped them to fill up the pro-
gram with a colloquy, two dialogues, and several
orations. A poem was also delivered by Gerard H.
Hallock, who was then principal of Amherst Acad-
emy. As the institution had no charter, and no au-
thority to confer degrees, testimonials in Latin that
they had honorably completed the usual college
course were given to the two members of the senior
class. The exercises were then closed with sacred
music and prayer. The subjects of the two dialogues
were "Turkish Oppression," and "The Gospel Car-
ried to India." The last, which was written by Pin-
dar Field and acted by the two seniors with the help
of one of the juniors, was an intentional argument
and appeal in favor of foreign and domestic missions.
The first revival of religion occurred in the spring
term of 1823, about a year and a half after the open-
ing of the institution. The number of students was
now over a hundred. The president's house was
completed. Two edifices crowned the " consecrated
eminence," and a subscription of thirty thousand
dollars was being successfully and rapidly raised to
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 37
defray the expenses. The prosperity of the institu-
tion exceeded the most sanguine hopes of its found-
ers. But at this time President Moore was suffering
from ill-health. The amount of labor which he had
been performing for nearly two years, together with
the responsibility and anxiety that pressed upon him,
was enough to break down the most vigorous consti-
tution. In addition to his appropriate duties as
president and as chairman of the board of trustees,
he heard all the recitations of the senior and in part
those of the sophomore class, performed several jour-
neys to Boston to promote the interests of the insti-
tution, and solicited in a number of places pecuniary
aid in its behalf. The revival, while it gladdened
his heart beyond measure, greatly added to his labors
and responsibilities. His constitution, naturally
strong, was overtaxed by such accumulated labors
and anxieties, and had begun to give way percepti-
bly before the attack of disease which terminated
his life.
On Wednesday, the 25th of June, he was seized
with a bilious colic. From the first, the attack was
violent, and excited fears of a fatal termination.
" During his short sickness," we quote the language
of Prof. B. B. Edwards, a loving and beloved pupil,
one of the converts in the recent revival, " the college
was literally a place of tears. Prayer was offered
unto God unceasingly for him. We have never seen
more heartfelt sorrow than was depicted in the
countenances of nearly a hundred young men, all of
whom loved him as their own father. But while
they were filled with anxiety and grief, Dr. Moore
was looking with calmness and joy upon the pros-
38 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
pects which were opening before him. While flesh
and heart were failing him, Christ was the strength
of his heart and the anchor of his soul. And when
his voice failed and his eyes were closing in death,
he could still whisper, 'God is my hope, my shield,
and my exceeding great reward. ' "
He died on Monday, the 2pth of June, 1823, in the
fifty-third year of his age. The funeral solemnities
were attended on the Wednesday following, in the
presence of a great concourse of people from Amherst
and the surrounding region. An appropriate sermon
was preached by Rev. Dr. Snell, of North Brookfield.
" By nature a great man, by grace a good man, and
in the providence of God a useful man, a correct
thinker and a lucid writer, a sound theologian, in-
structive preacher, and greatly beloved pastor, a wise
counsellor and sympathizing friend, a friend and fath-
er especially to all the young men of the infant col-
lege in which he was at the same time a winning
teacher and a firm presiding officer, Dr. Moore filled
every station he occupied with propriety and raised
the reputation of every literary institution with which
he became connected.' 1 Such, in brief, is the char-
acter of the first president of Amherst College as it
was briefly sketched in the funeral sermon by Dr.
Snell, who knew him intimately both in the pastorate
and in the presidency, and who was incapable of
exaggeration.
So profound was the sympathy of the senior class
with their beloved president, that they were reluc-
tant to take any part in commencement exercises at
which he could not preside. And so dark, in their
view, was the cloud which rested on the infant semi-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 39
nary, that, reduced almost to despair, they were on
the point of closing their connection with it .and
graduating at some other institution. Accordingly,
at the close of the funeral services, the class appeared
before the board of trustees, and asked to be released
from all participation in any commencement exer-
cises, and from all further connection with the col-
lege; but, at the urgent solicitation of the board,
they consented to stand in their lot. They never re-
gretted their perseverance in spite of all untoward
circumstances, even to the end, in consequence of
which they have not only been reckoned as alumni
of Amherst College, but counted among its heroes
who stood by it in the day of adversity, and consti-
tuted its second class. David O. Allen, of this class,
claimed to be the oldest graduate of Amherst, having
received the degree of A. B. the first of any one, on
this wise : While teaching school in Leominster, in
the winter vacation of his senior year, he applied for
the situation of principal of Groton Academy, then
a flourishing institution, and got the appointment.
But after obtaining it, he found that a by-law of the
academy required the principal to be a graduate of
a college. Amherst, having no charter, could at
this time confer no degrees. What was to be done?
He went to President Moore with his trouble. After
much consultation, President Moore gave him testi-
monials to the president of Union College. Mr.
Allen went there privately, joined the senior class,
passed the senior examination, and returned with a
diploma in his pocket, while as yet his classmates
were scarcely aware of his absence. After complet-
ing his course at Amherst, he taught the academy
4
40 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
at Groton, paid up his debts, earned money in ad-
vance for his theological education at Andover, and
afterward became one of the most honored of our
American missionaries, and the author of the well-
known work on "Ancient and Modern India."
OF THE
^UNIVERSITY!
Xf es
UNIVERSITY,
CHAPTER IV.
PRESIDENT HUMPHREY'S ADMINISTRATION, FROM 1823
TO 1825 STRUGGLE FOR THE CHARTER LEGISLA-
TIVE INVESTIGATION FINAL SUCCESS SEAL OF THE
COLLEGE.
IN July, 1823, Rev. Heman Humphrey was chosen
to the presidency. His ministry of ten years in
Fairfield, Connecticut, had been eminently useful
and successful. He had now been nearly six years
pastor of the church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His
labors in both these places had been blessed with re-
vivals of religion of great power. He was already
recognized as a pioneer and leader in the cause of
temperance. He was a zealous champion of ortho-
doxy, evangelical religion, Christian missions, and
of all the distinctive principles of the founders of
Amherst College. In recognition of his high stand-
ing as an able divine and an efficient pastor he had
just received the honorary degree of Doctor of
Divinity from Middlebury College. Although a
Berkshire pastor, and a trustee of Williams College,
he felt the force of the reasons for its removal, and
when that plan was defeated by the action of the
Legislature, he could not but sympathize with the
high purpose and auspicious beginning of the insti-
tution at Amherst.
On the i5th of October, 1823, Dr. Humphrey was
inducted into the presidency. It marks a character-
istic of the institution, perhaps also of the age, that a
41
42 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
sermon was preached on the occasion. The preacher
was Rev. Richard Salter Storrs, of Braintree, Massa-
chusetts. " It was a discourse of scope, adaptation,
eloquence, and power ; in all respects of such engross-
ing interest as to make it no easy task for the
speaker who should come after him. The wise
sophomores entertained serious doubts whether the
president could sustain himself in his inaugural.
But this feeling soon subsided, and we were relieved
of all our sophomoric fears and anxieties, as the presi-
dent-elect, with a master's hand, opened the great
subject of education education physical, mental, and
moral, holding his audience in unbroken stillness for
perhaps an hour and a half. If we were captivated
by the eloquent preacher, we were not less impressed
with the teachings and philosophy of the man who
was to guide our feet in the paths of literature,
science, and heavenly wisdom. That discourse estab-
lished in our minds his fitness for the position ; at
once he seized upon our confidence and esteem. " 1
Cool and impartial criticism, after the lapse of
almost half a century, can but justify the admira-
tion which President Humphrey's inaugural inspired
in the minds of those who heard it. Perhaps nothing
has ever proceeded from his pen which illustrates
more perfectly the strong common sense, the prac-
tical wisdom, the sharp and clear Saxon style, the
vigor of thought, fervor of passion and boldness,
coupled sometimes with marvellous felicity of expres-
sion, and the healthy, hearty, robust tone of body,
1 Manuscript letter of Hon. Lincoln Clark, of the class of
'25.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 43
soul, and spirit, which the Christian public for so
many years admired and loved in Dr. Humphrey. 1
The number of students at the time of Dr. Hum-
phrey's accession to the presidency was nineteen
seniors, twenty-nine juniors, forty-one sophomores,
and thirty-seven freshmen total, one hundred and
twenty-six, of whom, we learn from the cover of the
inaugural address, ninety-eight were hopefully pious.
The faculty, at the commencement of the new ad-
ministration, consisted of the same persons who were
thus associated with President Moore, with the addi-
tion of Samuel M. Worcester as tutor. On the cata-
logue of the next year, published in November, 1824,
we find the name of Rev. Nathan W. Fiske in place
of Joseph Estabrook, as professor of the Latin and
Greek languages; Samuel M. Worcester, teacher of
languages and librarian ; and Jacob Abbott, tutor
all names familiar afterwards as professors under the
charter. The new president seems to have made no
change in the studies of the senior class, except that
Locke disappears from the list and Vincent's Cate-
chism is definitely announced for every Saturday a
place which it continued to occupy through Dr.
Humphrey's entire presidency. Instruction was also
offered in the Hebrew, French and German lan-
guages, to such as wished it, for a reasonable com-
pensation. The president was still the sole teacher
of the senior class. He instructed them in rhetoric,
logic, natural theology, the evidences of Chris-
1 The writer will be pardoned for adding that he has a
special and personal reason for an affectionate remembrance
of this inaugural, since it was the reading of it in a distant
state that brought him to Amherst College.
44 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
tianity, intellectual and moral philosophy, and polit-
ical economy. He also presided at the weekly dec-
lamations in the chapel, and criticised the composi-
tions of one or more of the classes. He preached on
the Sabbath, occasionally, in the village church so
long as the students worshipped there; and when a
separate organization was deemed advisable, he be-
came the pastor of the college church and preached
every Sabbath to the congregation. He also sus-
tained from the first, I believe a weekly religious
lecture on Thursday evenings. He early drew up
the first code of written and printed " Laws of the
Collegiate Charity Institution, "the original of which
is still preserved in his own handwriting, and labored
to introduce more perfect order and system into the
still imperfectly organized seminary. At the same
time he was compelled to take the lead in a per-
petual struggle for raising funds and obtaining a
charter.
Under such circumstances it is not surprising that
Dr. Humphrey did not at once command the highest
respect and veneration of the students in the chair of
instruction. Accustomed to love and almost worship
his predecessor, they very naturally drew compari-
sons to his disadvantage. Dr. Moore had been a
teacher for the larger part of his life. Dr. Hum-
phrey had no experience in the government or the
instruction of a college. His strength at this time
was in the pulpit and the pastoral office. The stu-
dents also contrasted his plain manners, his distance
and reserve, with the courtly air and winning address
of his predecessor. Hence, while he enjoyed their
respect as a man, their confidence as a Christian, and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 4$
their admiration as an eloquent preacher, as a teacher
and a president he was not popular with his earlier
classes.
A joke perpetrated about this time has taken its
place as a classic among the most famous of Amherst
stories, and deserves to be narrated here, not only as
illustrative of Dr. Humphrey's character and admin-
istration, but because it proved a turning-point in
his reputation. The story cannot be better told than
in his own words : " One morning as I came into
prayers, I found the chair preoccupied by a goose.
She looked rather shabby to be sure, nevertheless it
was a veritable goose. Strange as it may seem, she
did not salute me with so much as a hiss for my un-
ceremonious intrusion. It might be because I did
not offer to take the chair. As anybody might ven-
ture to stand a few moments, even in such a presence,
I carefully drew the chair up behind me as close as
I safely could, went through the exercises, and the
students retired in the usual orderly manner, not
more than two or three, I believe, having noticed
anything uncommon. In the course of the day it
was reported, and as soon as they found out what had
happened, they were highly excited and proposed
calling a college meeting to express their indigna-
tion that such an insult had been offered by one of
their number. The hour of evening prayers came,
and at the close of the usual exercises I asked the
young gentlemen to be seated a moment. I then
stated what I had heard; and thanked them for the
kind interest they had taken in the matter, told them
it was just what I should expect from gentlemen of
such high and honorable feelings, but begged them
46 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
not to give themselves the least trouble in the prem-
ises. 'You know/ I said, 'that the trustees have just
been here to organize a college faculty. Their in-
tention was to provide competent instructors in all
the departments, so as to meet the capacity of every
student. But it seems that one student was over-
looked, and I am sure they will be glad to learn that
he has promptly supplied the deficiency by choosing
a goose for his tutor. Par nobile fratrum.' " The
effect may well be imagined.
Rev. T. R. Cressey, of the class of 1828, writes:
44 The president's 'Par nobile fratrum, ' with its accom-
panying bow of dismissal, was instantly followed by
a round of applause. And such shouts of derision as
the boys raised while they went down those three
flights of stairs, crying, * Who is brother to the goose?'
'Who is brother to the goose?' The question was
never answered. But from that hour presidential
stock went up to a high figure, and never descended
while I had any personal acquaintance with Amherst
College."
We must now go back a little, and trace the efforts
to obtain a charter from their beginning. The first
application to the Legislature of Massachusetts for
a charter was made in the winter session of 1823.
The petition of President Moore was referred to a
joint committee of the two houses on the i7th and
i8th of January. On the 25th of January the com-
mittee reported that the petition be referred to
the next General Court. But so far from being re-
ferred with the usual courtesy, the report was not
accepted, and the petition was unceremoniously
rejected by both houses, nearly all the members
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 47
voting against it, including the representative from
Amherst. 1
Such uncourteous and unreasonable opposition only
increased the number and zeal of the friends of the
college. Nothing daunted, they resolved to renew
their application for a charter at the very next ses-
sion. Accordingly in June, 1823, a petition was
presented by Rev. Dr. Moore, Hon. John Hooker
and others of the trustees of Amherst Academy,
requesting that they might be invested with such
corporate powers as are usually given to the trustees
of colleges.
At the same session of the Legislature a memorial
was presented from the subscribers of the charity
fund, praying that the request of the trustees to be
invested with corporate powers might be granted.
The petition and memorial were referred to a joint
committee from both houses of the Legislature. Of
this committee, consisting of seven members, six
agreed in a report in favor of the petitioners having
leave to bring in a bill.
After listening to remarks by the chairman of the
joint committee in favor of their report, without
further discussion, the Senate voted on Monday, June
9th, to refer the consideration of the report to the
1 An old feud between the East and West Parishes, originat-
ing in party politics and personal animosities, extended its
influence to the college. The Amherst representative in the
winter session of 1823 was a member of the East Parish, and
a " Democrat. " The next two years the town was represented
by a member of the West Parish, who voted for the charter.
In this quarrel the East Street was familiarly called "Sodom,"
and the West " Mount Zion. "
48 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
next session of the same General Court, 1 and on
Tuesday the loth, the House of Representatives
concurred with the Senate in so referring it. Just
fifteen days after, President Moore sickened, and,
after an illness of only four days, died, his death be-
ing hastened, no doubt, if not caused, by repeated
disappointments and delays in the incorporation of
the college, and his toils and cares now devolved on
his successor.
On Wednesday, the 2ist of January, 1824, accord-
ing to the vote of reference passed at the summer
session, the report of the joint committee in favor
of granting a charter came up in the Senate, and it
was debated during the greater part of three days by
twelve of the ablest members. The longest and one
of the ablest speeches in behalf of the college was
made by Hon. Samuel Hubbard, of Boston. He said
that the objections against the charter, so far as he
had learned, were four, all founded on local or petty
considerations : First, that another college was not
needed. Second, that Williams College would be
injured. Third, that it was inexpedient to multiply
colleges. Fourth, that the petitioners would ask
for money. In answer to the first objection, he ar-
gued that there was a great want of men of educa-
tion and piety and morals ; and that this want was
felt by the good people of the Commonwealth, as
proved by their voluntary contributions to the insti-
tution at Amherst. " There is seldom an instance
of a college being founded like this, by the voluntary
1 At this time, the Massachusetts Legislature held two an-
nual sessions, the summer session commencing in May, and
the winter session commencing in January.
UNIVERSITY)
V OF
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 49
contributions of thousands. Out of the fifty colleges
in England, there is not one but what was founded
by an individual, except Christ College, in Oxford."
In answer to the second objection, he pointed to the
fact that the number of students at Williams College
had increased from an average of sixty or seventy to
one hundred and eighteen, and that of Amherst be-
ing one hundred and twenty-six, the two institutions
contained more than three times the previous average
at Williams. In reply to the third objection, he in-
sisted, as many other senators did, that small colleges
are better than large ones, and two hundred students
can be governed and instructed much better than four
hundred. In answer to the fourth objection, several
preceding speakers had argued that granting the
charter did not involve the necessity or the duty of
giving money ; but Mr. Hubbard said, " What if it
does? Such grants do not impoverish the state.
The liberal grants which have been made to Harvard
and Williams are the highest honor of the state,
and have redounded to the good of the people."
Meeting boldly and on high ground the prejudice
against Amherst as an orthodox institution, Mr.
Hubbard declared that " all that is great and good
in our land sprang from orthodoxy. This spirit of
orthodoxy animated the Pilgrims whom we delight
to honor as our forefathers. It has founded all our
colleges and is founded on a rock."
More than one of the speakers reminded the Senate
that Amherst represented not only the orthodoxy, but
the yeomanry of Massachusetts, and they must be
prepared to give an account of their votes to the mass
of the people. "If we refuse a charter," said Hon.
50 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Mr. Fiske, " how are we when we leave this hall,
how are we to face the mass of population who are
interested in this college? They will say, 'You in-
corporate theaters, you incorporate hotels, you have
incorporated a riding-school. Are you more accom-
modating to such institutions than to those which are
designed to promote the great interests of literature,
science, and religion?' "
"By refusing a charter," said Hon. Mr. Leland,
" the great body of country citizens are wantonly de-
prived of the privilege of a college. Something
more than the feelings of orthodoxy will be awak-
ened. The people will feel that there is a disposition
on the part of Government to maintain an aristocratic
monopoly. And rely upon it, your next election will
bring persons here who will acknowledge the rights
of the people. "
The vote was at length taken, on Friday, January
23d, and the question being on the acceptance of the
report, giving leave to bring in a bill, twenty-two
out of thirty-seven voted in the affirmative.
On Tuesday, January 27th, the subject was taken
up in the House of Representatives, and debated
with much earnestness on that and the three follow-
ing days and then postponed till the next week. On
Tuesday, February 3d, it was resumed, and further
discussed, and the question being taken on concur-
ring with the Senate, it was decided in the negative
by a majority of nineteen votes out of one hundred
and ninety-nine.
"So, "said the editor of the "Boston Telegraph"
(Gerard Hallock), " the House declined to incorporate
the college. Although the result is not such as the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. $1
numerous friends of the college could have wished,
it is certainly no discouraging circumstance that so
great a change has taken place in the views of the
Legislature on the subject, and especially in the views
of the community. Let the same spirit go on for a
few months longer, and the institution at Amherst
will be, what it doubtless ought to be, a chartered
college/'
Grieved, but not disheartened by this result, the
guardians and friends of the college resolved to renew
the application and began at once the preparations
for a third campaign. The first campaign document
was an announcement of their intention to apply
again to the Legislature for a charter, together with
a concise statement of the reasons why such a peti-
tion ought to be granted. This document, signed by
President Humphrey, and bearing date March 12,
1824, was published in more than thirty newspapers
in all parts of the Commonwealth. And such was
the sympathy manifested by the press, and such also
the increase in the number of students, that a con-
undrum, started by the " Greenfield Gazette," went
the rounds of the newspapers : " Why are the friends
of Amherst College like the Hebrews in Egypt?
Because the more they are oppressed, the more they
multiply and prosper."
The petition of the trustees was backed by a peti-
tion of the founders and proprietors which was
signed by about four-fifths of the subscribers to the
charity fund. And these were further supported by
more than thirty petitions from as many different
towns, and signed by more than five hundred sub-
scribers to other funds. In the Senate, the petition
52 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
was promptly referred to a committee of three, to be
joined by the House. In the House an attempt was
made to prevent even a reference. But after con-
siderable discussion this was almost unanimously
voted down, and a committee of four members was
joined to that already appointed by the Senate, and
all the petitions, together with a remonstrance from
Williams College, were referred to this joint com-
mittee.
On Monday, May 3ist, President Humphrey ap-
peared before the joint committee, and, in the pres-
ence of a crowd of spectators, pleaded the cause of
the petitioners in a speech which was as entertaining
as it was unanswerable, and which Hon. Lewis
Strong, of Northampton, a competent and impartial
judge, pronounced to be probably the ablest speech
which was made in the State House during that ses-
sion of the Legislature. On the following day,
after an examination of witnesses, Homer Bartlett,
Esq., of Williamstown, appeared on the part of the
opposition and spoke against the incorporation, and
was followed by Hon. Mr. Davis, solicitor-general
of the State, in an able and eloquent plea in favor of
granting the charter. On Thursday, the committee
reported that the petitioners have leave to bring in a
bill. This report was brought before the Senate the
same day, and accepted without any opposition. On
Friday, the subject was taken up in the House, and,
after considerable debate, assigned to eleven o'clock
on Tuesday of the ensuing week. Thus the consid-
eration of the matter was put off to within five days
of the close of the session. When it came up again
on Tuesday, a desperate effort was made to secure
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 53
first an indefinite postponement, and then a reference
to the next session. Both these motions having been
negatived by a large majority, the House adjourned
to four o'clock in the afternoon, when an animated
and earnest discussion ensued, which continued till
a late hour in the evening, and was resumed at nine
o'clock the next morning. 1 "It was strenuously
argued in opposition, chiefly by members from Berk-
shire and our own neighborhood, that a third college
was not wanted in Massachusetts; that according to
our own showing, we had not funds to sustain a col-
lege; that nothing like the amount presented on
paper would ever be realized; and that there was
reason to believe that many of the subscriptions had
been obtained by false representations." 3
Under the influence of such suggestions a resolu-
tion was brought forward to refer the report of the
joint committee, and all the papers relating to the
subject, to a committee of five members with power
to send for persons and papers, to sit at such time
and place as they should deem expedient, and to in-
quire in substance, first, what reliable funds the in-
stitution had ; second, what means had been resorted
to by the petitioners, or by persons acting in their
behalf, to procure subscriptions, and, third, what
1 One of the ablest advocates of the claims of the college, in
this debate, was Bradford Sumner, Esq., of Boston, who was,
I believe, a partner of Judge Hubbard, in the law. On the
other side, Rev. Mr. Mason, of Northfield, a rum -selling and
pugnacious Unitarian minister, read a speech an hour long,
which was full of scorn about "orthodoxy," "hopeful piety,"
and "evangelizing the world."
2 Dr. Humphrey's Historical Sketches.
54 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
methods had been adopted to obtain students; this
committee to report to the House at its next session.
After a warm discussion which lasted for three days,
and when nearly sixty of the members had already
gone to their homes, on the loth of June, 1824, this
resolution was adopted by a vote of one hundred and
nine to eighty-nine, and the committee of investi-
gation was appointed.
The committee, nominated by the chair, " were all
intelligent, fair-minded men, but not one of them
sympathized with us in our well-known orthodox re-
ligious opinions. This, we thought, might, uninten-
tionally on their part, operate against us. But in
the end it proved for our advantage. " l
The investigating committee having given notice
that they would meet at Boltwood's Hotel in Am-
herst, on Monday, the 4th of October, that was to be
the scene of the next act in the drama, and this part
of the story can not be better told than in the lan-
guage of Dr. Humphrey, who was the chief actor
in it.
" Rarely has there been a more thorough and
searching investigation. All our books and papers
were brought out and laid upon the table. Nothing
was withheld. Every subscription, note, and obliga-
tion was carefully examined, and hardly anything
passed without being protested by the able counsel
against us. Colonel Graves, our principal agent
in obtaining the subscriptions, was present and close-
ly questioned. A lawyer who had been employed
to look up testimony against us was there with the
affidavits which he had industriously collected, and,
1 Dr. Humphrey's Historical Sketches.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 55
at his request, a large number of subpoenas were sent
out to bring in dissatisfied subscribers. The trial
lasted a fortnight. The room was crowded from day
to day with anxious listeners. Were we to live or
die? Were we to have a charter, or to be forever
shut out from the sisterhood of colleges? That was
the question, and it caused many sleepless nights in
Amherst. Whatever might be the result, we cheer-
fully acknowledged that the committee had con-
ducted the investigation with exemplary patience
and perfect fairness. When the papers were all dis-
posed of, the case was ably summed up by the coun-
sel, and the committee adjourned.
" Many incidents occurred in the progress of the
investigation which kept up the interest, and some
of which were very amusing, but I have room for
only two. Among our subscriptions there was a very
long list, amounting to several hundred dollars, of
sums under one dollar, and not a few of these by
females and children under age. On these, it was
obvious at a glance, there might be very considerable
loss. This advantage against us could not escape
gentlemen so astute as our learned opponents. It
was reported, and I believe it was true, that they sat
up nearly all night drawing off names and figuring,
so as to be ready for the morning. Getting an ink-
ling of what they were about, three of our trustees
drew up an obligation, assuming the whole amount,
whatever it might be, and had it in readiness to meet
the expected report. 1 The morning came; the ses-
1 A copy of this obligation is still preserved. The names
of the trustees affixed are J. E. Trask, Nathaniel Smith, and
John Fiske.
56 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
sion was opened; the parties were present; the
gentlemen who had taken so much pains to astound
the committee by their discovery were just about
laying it on the table, when the obligation assuming
the whole amount was laid on the table by one of the
subscribers. I leave the reader to imagine the scene
of disappointment on the one side and of suppressed
cheering on the other. It turned out to be a fair
money operation in our favor.
" The other incident was still more amusing.
When the notes came up to pass the ordeal of in-
quiry and protest, one of a hundred dollars was pro-
duced from a gentleman in Danvers. 'Who is this
Mr. P.?' demanded one of the lawyers. 'Who
knows anything about his responsibility?' 'Will
you let me look at that note, sir?' said Mr. S. V. S.
Wilder, one of our trustees. After looking at it for
a moment, taking a package of bank-bills from his
pocket he said: 'Mr. Chairman, I will cash that
note,' and laid down the money. It was not long
before another note was protested in the same way.
'Let me look at it,' said Mr. Wilder. 'I will cash it,
sir, ' and he laid another bank-bill upon the table.
By and by a third note was objected to. 'I will cash
it, sir, ' said Mr. Wilder, and was handing over the
money when the chairman interposed: 'Sir, we did
not come here to raise money for Amherst College, '
and declined receiving it. How long Mr. Wilder' s
package would have held out I do not know, but the
scene produced a lively sensation all around the
board, and very few protests were offered afterwards.
"The appointment of this commission proved a
real windfall to the institution. It gave the trus-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 57
tees opportunity publicly to vindicate themselves
against the aspersions which had been industriously
cast upon them, and it constrained them to place
the charity fund on a sure foundation. The in-
vestigation, to be sure, cost us some time and trouble,
but it was worth more to us than a new subscription
of ten thousand dollars." l
On the 8th of January, 1825, the question was
called up in the House, and the report of the inves-
tigating committee was presented and read. After
reporting the results of their investigations in the
matters of fact referred to them, wherein they for the
most part exonerate the trustees, officers, and agents of
the institution of the charges against them, the com-
mittee said in conclusion : " The refusal of the Leg-
islature to grant a college charter to Amherst will
not, it is believed, prevent its progress. Whenever
there is an opinion in the community that any portion
of citizens are persecuted (whether this opinion is
well or ill grounded) the public sympathies are di-
rected to them ; and instead of sinking under opposi-
tion they almost invariably flourish and gain new
strength from opposition. Your committee are
therefore of opinion that any further delay to the in-
corporation of the Amherst institution would very
much increase the excitement which exists in the com-
munity on this subject, and have a tendency to in-
terrupt those harmonious feelings which now prevail
and prevent that union of action so essential to the
just influence of the State."
1 In these quotations from Dr. Humphrey, I have followed in-
discriminately his Historical Sketches and his address in 1853,
according as the one or the other was the more full and graphic.
UNIVERSITY
58 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
After repeated consideration and adjournment,
with protracted and earnest debate day after day in
the House, the question of accepting the report of the
committee and giving leave to bring in a bill was at
length brought to a vote on the 28th of January, and
the yeas and nays being ordered, it was decided in
the affirmative by a vote of one hundred and fourteen
to ninety-five. The next day, January 29th, the
Senate concurred with the House. And on the 2ist
of February, 1825, the bill, having been variously
amended, passed to be enacted in both branches of
the Legislature, and having received the signature
of the lieutenant-governor, Marcus Morton, on the
same day, became a law. Thus, after a delay of
three years and a half from the opening, and a strug-
gle of more than two years from the time of the first
petition, the institution at Amh erst received a charter
and was admitted to a name as well as a place among
the colleges of Massachusetts.
The charter conferred upon the corporation the
rights and privileges usually granted to the trustees
of such institutions. Two or three provisions only
were peculiar, and as such worthy of notice. The
charter provides that the number of trustees shall
never be greater than seventeen, and that the five
vacancies which shall first happen in the board shall
be filled as they occur by the joint ballots of the
Legislature in convention of both houses ; and when-
ever any person so chosen by the Legislature shall
cease to be a member of the corporation, his place
shall be filled in like manner, and so on forever.
This provision, quite unprecedented in the history of
Massachusetts charters, was not in the bill as first
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 59
reported, but was introduced as an amendment in the
course of the discussion. It was as illiberal as it
was unprecedented. It should be remembered, how-
ever, to the credit of subsequent Legislatures, that
they usually appointed to such vacancies according to
the nomination or the known wishes of the corpora-
tion, and in no instance filled them with persons ob-
noxious to the faculty and friends of the institution,
and in 1874, the Legislature passed an act provid-
ing that the five trustees heretofore chosen by the
Legislature shall hereafter be chosen by the gradu-
ates, subject to such rules, as may be adopted by the
board of trustees and the alumni association. Ac-
cording to these rules, these trustees are chosen one
every year and hold office for five years, thus provid-
ing for the continual infusion of fresh blood from the
alumni into the corporation.
It was a glad day for Amherst when the charter
was secured. President Humphrey and his asso-
ciates, who had remained in Boston watching with
intense anxiety the progress of the bill, returned
home with light hearts. The messenger who first
brought the news was taken from the stage and car-
ried to the hotel by the citizens. The hotel, the col-
lege buildings, and the houses of the citizens were
illuminated, and the village and the college alike
were a scene of universal rejoicing.
On the 1 3th of April, the trustees under the charter
held their first meeting in Amherst, organized the
board and appointed the faculty. The first annual
meeting of the board under the charter was held on
the 22d of August, 1825, which was the Monday pre-
ceding commencement. At this meeting a code of
60 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
laws was established for the government of the col-
lege, 1 a system of by-laws adopted to regulate the
proceedings of the trustees and their officers, and
the organization of the faculty was changed by the
establishment of new professorships and completed
by the choice of additional professors. The salary
of the president was fixed at twelve hundred dollars
with the usual perquisites. The salaries of the pro-
fessors, as they were voted at the first meeting of the
board, varied from eight hundred dollars to six hun-
dred dollars. At the annual meeting, those which
had been voted at six hundred dollars were raised to
seven hundred dollars. 2 Rev. Edward Hitchcock
was chosen professor of chemistry and natural his-
tory, with a salary of seven hundred dollars and the
privilege of being excused for one year from per-
forming such duties of a professor as he might be
unable to perform " on account of his want of full
health." Mr. Jacob Abbott was appointed professor
of mathematics and natural philosophy, with a salary
of eight hundred dollars, "one hundred of which,
however, are to be appropriated by him annually,
with the advice of the other members of the faculty,
toward making repairs and additions to the philo-
sophical apparatus." Mr. Ebenezer S. Snell was
1 These laws were essentially the same which had been pre-
viously established for the government of the Charity Institu-
tion. They seem to have been drawn up by Dr. Humphrey,
in whose handwriting the original copy still exists.
2 At the annual meeting in 1827, it was voted that the pro-
fessors receive each a salary of eight hundred dollars : and,
as a rule, the professors have ever since all received the same
salary.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 6 1
chosen tutor in mathematics with a salary of four
hundred dollars.
It was now voted to confer the degree of Bachelor
of Arts on " any young gentlemen who have previ-
ously received testimonials of their college course in
this college. " The same degree was then voted to
be conferred on twenty-two young gentlemen of the
senior class (1825) who had been recommended by the
faculty.
The seal which was affixed to the diplomas was
procured by the president and professors, to whom
that duty was assigned by the trustees at their first
meeting, and being approved and adopted by them
at their first annual meeting, it has remained ever
since the corporate seal of the college. The device
is a sun and a Bible illuminating a globe by their
united radiance, with the motto underneath: " Terras
Irradient. " Around the whole run the words : " SIGILL.
COLL. AMHERST. MASS. Nov. ANG. MDCCCXXV."
CHAPTER V.
A PERIOD OF RAPID GROWTH, 1825-36 FIRST SCIEN-
TIFIC COURSE THE CHAPEL BUILDING UNSUCCESSFUL
APPEALS TO THE LEGISLATURE HOURS AND FINES
THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE.
THE year which began in September, 1825, was the
first entire collegiate year of Amherst College. With
this year our history enters on a new epoch. The
new organization of the faculty dates from this time,
since not only the new officers now commenced the
duties of their office, but those who had been mem-
bers of the faculty before had hitherto served the col-
lege for their old salaries and in their old depart-
ments. The faculty at this time was constituted as
follows: Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D., president,
professor of mental and moral philosophy and pro-
fessor of divinity; Rev. Edward Hitchcock, A.M.,
professor of chemistry and natural history; Rev.
Jonas King, A.M., professor of oriental literature;
Rev. Nathan W. Fiske, A.M., professor of the Greek
language and literature, and professor of belles-
lettres; Rev. Solomon Peck, A.M., professor of the
Hebrew and Latin languages and literature; Sam-
uel M. Worcester, A.M., professor of rhetoric and
oratory; Jacob Abbott, A.M., professor of mathe-
matics and natural philosophy; Ebenezer S. Snell,
A.M., tutor of mathematics. The first catalogue
which bears the names of this faculty was printed
62
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 63
in October, 1825, by Carter & Adams, who established
the first printing-press in the town in 1825. The
catalogues, which had hitherto been printed abroad,
were henceforth printed in Amherst.
On the catalogue for 1825, John Leland, Esq., ap-
pears as treasurer, and Rufus Graves as financier.
In 1826 the constitution of the charity fund was so
altered by the concurrent action of the board of trus-
tees and the board of overseers in the manner pro-
vided for in article 13, that the office of financier of
that fund and that of treasurer of the college could
be united in one person; and from 1826 John Leland
was both treasurer and financier till 1833, when
Lucius Boltwood was appointed financier and John
Leland retained the office of treasurer.
From one hundred and twenty-six, in 1823, the
number of students increased, the next year, to one
hundred and thirty-six; in 1825 it rose to one hun-
dred and fifty-two, and from that time it went on in-
creasing pretty regularly, with a slight ebb in 1830
and 1831, for a period of eleven years, till rising to
its spring-tide in 1836, it reached an aggregate of
two hundred and fifty-nine. For two years Amherst
ranked above Harvard in the number of students,
and was second only to Yale. Thus was the senti-
ment of the committee of investigation confirmed,
that institutions almost always flourish under per-
secution whether apparent or real, and gain new
strength from opposition.
If we inquire into the causes of this rapid and ex-
traordinary growth of the college, the most obvious,
and, for a time, the most powerful, was unquestion-
ably the violent opposition which it encountered.
64 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
This brought it into immediate notice in Massachu-
setts. This soon made it known and conspicuous
through the whole country. This enlisted the sym-
pathy and support not only of those who held the
same religious faith, but of all who love fair play
and hate even the appearance of persecution. Local
feeling, sectional jealousy, the envy of neighboring
towns and of parishes in the same town, the interest
of rival institutions, sectarian zeal and party spirit,
hostility to orthodoxy and hatred of evangelical re-
ligion, all united to oppose the founding, the incor-
poration, and the endowment of the college; and the
result was only to multiply its friends, increase the
number of students, and swell the tide which bore it
on to victory and prosperity.
In 1835, t wo years before the close of our period,
Jonathan B. Condit and Edwards A. Park became
professors. The former was connected with the col-
lege only three years, and the latter rendered the
service of only one ) r ear and one term. At the re-
signation of Professor Park, in 1836, Professor Fiske
was transferred from the Latin and Greek chair to
that of intellectual and moral philosophy, and W.
S. Tyler was chosen professor of the Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew languages and literature.
The number of students was increased for a year
or two by the introduction of a new course of study
running parallel to the old.
This "parallel or equivalent course," as recom-
mended by the faculty, differed from the old, first,
in the prominence which was to be given to English
literature ; second, in the substitution of the modern
for the ancient languages, particularly the French
(UNIVERSITY)
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 65
and Spanish, and should room be found hereafter,
German or Italian, or both, with particular attention
to the literature in these rich and popular languages;
third, in mechanical philosophy, by multiplying and
varying the experiments so as to render the science
more familiar and attractive; fourth, in chemistry
and other kindred branches of physical science, by
showing their application to the more useful arts and
trades, to the cultivation of the soil, and to domestic
economy; fifth, in a course of familiar lectures
upon curious and labor-saving machines, upon
bridges, locks, and aqueducts, and upon the different
orders of architecture, with models for illustration ;
sixth, in natural history, by devoting more time to
those branches which are now taught, and introduc-
ing others into the course; seventh, in modern
history, especially the history of the Puritans, in
connection with the civil and ecclesiastical history of
our own country; eighth, in the elements of civil
and political law, embracing the careful study of
the American constitutions, to which may be added
drawing and civil engineering.
Ancient history, geography, grammar, rhetoric,
and oratory, mathematics, natural, intellectual and
moral philosophy, anatomy, political economy and
theology, according to the plan, were to be common
to both courses. The requirements for admission
were also to be the same for both courses, not ex-
cepting the present amount of Latin and Greek,
and the faculty strenuously insisted that the new
course should be fully " equivalent" to the old, that
it should fill up as many years, should be carried on
by as able instructors, should take as wide and ele-
66 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
vated a range, should require as great an amount of
hard study or mental discipline, and should be re-
warded by the same academic honors.
Besides the new parallel or equivalent course, the
faculty earnestly recommended a new department for
systematic instruction in the science of education,
and they further suggested a department of theoreti-
cal and practical mechanics.
At a meeting of the board in December, 1826,
they adopted the new system substantially as recom-
mended by the faculty, and not long after the
faculty drew up a plan of the studies, arranged in
parallel columns wherever the two courses differed,
and published it, together with other matter usually
contained in the annual catalogue, and announced
that this system was expected to go into operation at
the beginning of the next ensuing collegiate year.
At the commencement of that year (1827-28)
the whole number of students rose from one hun-
dred and seventy to two hundred and nine, and the
freshman class, which the previous year contained
fifty-one, now numbered sixty-seven, of whom eigh-
teen are set down on the catalogue as students " in
modern languages." So far forth the experiment
promised well. In regard to the number of students,
it was at least a fair beginning. But now com-
menced the difficulties in the execution of the plan.
These were found to be far greater than the trus-
tees or the faculty had anticipated. The teacher of
modern languages, a native of France, was not very
successful in teaching, and was quite incapable of
maintaining order in his class, so that the faculty
were compelled to appoint one of the professors to
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 6/
preside at his recitations. The professors and tutors
on whom it devolved to give the additional instruc-
tion, although willing, as they declared in their re-
port, "to take upon themselves additional burdens,"
had their hands full already with other duties, and
found unexpected difficulties in organizing and con-
ducting the new course of studies. The college was
not sufficiently manned for the work it had under-
taken, and was too poor to furnish an adequate
faculty. Truth also probably requires the state-
ment that the new course, which was the favorite
scheme of one of the professors, was never very
heartily adopted by the rest of the faculty, who,
therefore, worked in and for it with far less courage
and enthusiasm than they did in the studies of the
old curriculum. Moreover they discovered, as the
year advanced, that the new plan was not received
by the public with so much favor as had been ex-
pected, that they had probably overestimated the
popular demand for the modern languages and the
physical sciences in collegiate education. The stu-
dents of the new course were not slow to perceive all
these facts. They soon discovered the fact, whatever
might be the cause, that they were not obtaining an
education which was in reality equivalent to that
obtained by other students.
The next year, 1828, the freshman class fell back
to fifty-two, just about the number of two years be-
fore; and of these so few wished, or particularly
cared, to join the new course, that there was no divi-
sion organized in the modern languages. Those
who had entered the previous year, gradually fell
back into the regular course. The catalogue for the
68 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
year 1828-29 retains no trace of the new plan, ex-
cept the parallel columns of the old and new courses
of studies. At their annual meeting in 1829, the
trustees voted to dispense with the parallel course
in admitting students hereafter, and made French
one of the regular studies. At the same meeting, the
professor who was the father of the scheme resigned
his professorship. Thus not a vestige of the experi-
ment remained, except that the class with which it
was introduced graduated in 1831 the largest class
that had ever left the institution. Thus ended the
first attempt to introduce the modern languages and
the physical sciences as an equivalent of the time-
honored system of classical culture in our American
colleges. The plan, as it was presented in the reports
of the faculty, was exceedingly attractive and prom-
ising, and with ampler means and under more favor-
able circumstances might probably have been sus-
tained and thus anticipated by half a century much of
the success which now attends our elective courses.
With so large a number of students, and that num-
ber constantly and rapidly increasing, the officers of
the college soon found the place too strait for them,
and began very naturally to look about for more
ample accommodations. The most immediate and
pressing want was felt to be that of a more conven-
ient and suitable place of worship. " When I entered
upon my office, in 1823," says President Humphrey,
"the students worshipped on the Sabbath in the old
parish meeting-house on the hill. I soon found that
the young men of the society felt themselves crowded
by the students, and there were increasing symptoms
from Sabbath to Sabbath of collision and disturbance.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 69
I accordingly told the trustees that I thought it would
be safest and best for us to withdraw and worship by
ourselves in one of the college buildings till a chapel
could be built for permanent occupancy. They au-
thorized us to do so, and I have never doubted the
expediency of the change on this and even more im-
portant grounds." l
The chief reason which the venerable ex-president
in his " Historical Sketches" proceeds to urge in favor
of a separate congregation and place of worship for
students, is the greater appropriateness, directness,
and impressiveness of the preaching which can thus
be addressed to them. He deemed it a great loss of
moral power to preach to students scattered among
a large mixed congregation.
But the old chapel, laboratory, and lecture-room,
and room for every other use, in the upper story of
North College, could not long accommodate the
growing number of students, even for morning and
evening prayers, still less the congregation for Sab-
bath worship. The subject of a new chapel came
before the board of trustees at their first meeting
under the charter. They were encouraged to con-
sider the subject and form some plans in respect to
it by a legacy of some four thousand dollars or more
which Adam Johnson of Pelham had left to the col-
lege for the express purpose of erecting such a build-
ing. But his will had been disallowed by the Judge
of Probate, and an appeal from his decision was now
pending in the Supreme Court. At this time, there-
fore, they only voted that in case the will should be
1 Historical Sketches in manuscript.
70 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
established, the prudential committee be instructed
to proceed with all convenient dispatch in the erec-
tion of a chapel building. They furthermore au-
thorized that committee to borrow any further sum of
money which they might deem requisite for that
purpose, not exceeding six thousand dollars. "At
the annual meeting in August, 1825, the call for a
chapel and other public accommodations had become
too urgent to be postponed without sacrificing the in-
terests of the college. In this emergency the trus-
tees could not hesitate. They saw but one course,
and they promptly empowered the prudential com-
mittee to contract for the erection of a chapel build-
ing," 1 and also a third college edifice, if they deemed
it expedient, at the same time authorizing them to
borrow such sums of money as might be necessary
therefor, of the charity fund, of banks, or of indi-
viduals.
The work on the Chapel was commenced early in
the spring of 1826, and so far completed in the
course of the season that on the 28th of February,
1827, it was dedicated. Dr. Humphrey preached
the dedication sermon. His text was: "Hitherto
hath the Lord helped us." "Five years ago," he
says, "there was one building for the accommoda-
tion of between fifty and sixty students ; four years
ago there were between ninety and a hundred young
men here ; one year ago, there were a hundred and
fifty ; and now there are a hundred and seventy. It
is scarcely two years since the seminary was char-
tered, and yet I believe that in the number of under-
1 Dr. Humphrey's dedication sermon.
cc
O
I
O
UJ
I
h-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 71
graduates it now holds the third or fourth rank in
the long list of American colleges! God forbid that
this statement should excite any but grateful emo-
tions. It is meet that we should carefully look over
this ground to-day, that the inscription may be indeli-
bly engraved on our hearts * Hitherto hath the Lord
helped us.' "
Meanwhile the decision of the Judge of Pro-
bate had been reversed, and the will of Adam
Jolmson established by the Supreme Court and,
at the annual meeting of the board in August,
1828, it was voted that in testimony of their grateful
remembrance of his munificent donation, the apart-
ment occupied as a chapel should forever be called
Johnson Chapel, and that the President be requested
to have the words, "Johnson Chapel, " inserted in
large and distinct characters over the middle door
or principal entrance of the apartment.
Besides the chapel proper, the chapel building
contained originally four recitation -rooms, a room
for philosophical apparatus, and a cabinet for miner-
als on the lower floor, two recitation-rooms on the
second floor, a library room on the third floor, and a
laboratory in the basement. These recitation-rooms
were named after the departments to which they
were appropriated, for example, the Greek, Latin,
mathematical or tablet l rooms on the first floor, and
the rhetorical and theological rooms on the second,
and they were far in advance of the recitation-rooms
of the older colleges in size, beauty, and convenience.
The college library was soon removed from the
1 So called because the walls were covered with blackboards.
6
72 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
fourth story of North College to the room intended
for it in the third story of the Chapel, and the room
not being half filled by it, the remaining half, viz.,
the shelves on either side of the door, were for
some time set apart respectively for the libraries of
the Alexandrian and Athenian societies. When bet-
ter accommodations were furnished many years later
for the mineral cabinet, the recitation-rooms l of Prof.
R. H. Mather and Prof. J. H. Seelye took the place
of the tablet room, the old cabinet, and a part of the
adjoining entry, and the rhetorical and theological
rooms gave place to the small chapel. And when
Williston Hall provided for the chemical department,
the old laboratory, so long the scene of Professor
Hitchcock's brilliant experiments and coruscations of
genius, was given up to storage and other neces-
sary but comparatively ignoble uses.
At the annual meeting of the trustees in August,
1827, it was voted that the prudential committee be
directed to take immediate measures for erecting
another college building for the accommodation of
the students, similar to those already erected, and
cause the same to be completed as soon as may be,
provided that in their judgment a suitable site for
such building can be obtained.
The site was soon selected, and before the com-
mencement of another collegiate year, the building
was completed so as to be occupied by students for
1 Now occupied by Professor Richardson and Professor Mon-
tague. Professor Cowles now occupies the old mathematical
room, so long the scene of Professor Snell's recitations and
lectures. The lower story of the chapel building is now devot-
ed entirely to ancient and modern languages (1894) .
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 73
the year 1828-29. This new dormitory was better
adapted to promote the health, comfort, and conven-
ience of students, especially in its well-lighted and
ventilated bed-rooms, and its ample closets, than
either of the other buildings, and was perhaps a bet-
ter dormitory, as being built on a better plan, than
any that then existed in any other college. It had,
however, the disadvantage of running east and west,
instead of north and south, so that the rooms on the
north side were never visited by the sun, and no
such rooms are fit to be inhabited. Still it was for
many years the favorite dormitory and its rooms
were the first choice of members of the upper classes,
not a few of whom, on their return to Amherst, look
in vain for the North College of their day * as the
centre of some of their most sacred associations. In
the winter of 1857 it was destroyed by fire, and its
site is now occupied by Williston Hall.
It was in connection with the site of North Col-
lege that the process of grading the college grounds
began, which, during so many years in the poverty
of the college, was carried forward by the hands of
the students, sometimes by individuals working out
of study hours, and sometimes by a whole class vol-
unteering to devote a half-day or a whole day to the
work. Or, if the process began earlier, we now
find it receiving a special and grateful recognition
on the records of the trustees, who, at their annual
meeting in August, 1827, "having noticed with
much satisfaction the improvements made in the
1 From 1828 to 1857, this was called North College, and the
present North was called Middle College during the same
period.
74 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
college grounds, and hearing that these were effected
principally by the voluntary labors of the students,"
passed a vote expressing the " pleasure they felt in
view of these self-denying and benevolent exertions
to add to the beauty and convenience of the institu-
tion." The same enterprise and public spirit also
gave birth soon after to a gymnasium in the grove, a
bathing establishment at the well, and a college band,
which, for many years, furnished music at exhibi-
tions, commencements, and other public occasions.
During the summer term of 1828, the students, with
the approbation of the faculty, organized a sort of
interior government, supplementary to that of the
faculty, and designed to secure more perfect order
and quietness in the institution. A legislative body,
called the " House of Students," enacted laws for the
protection of the buildings, for the security of the
grounds, for the better observance of study hours,
and similar matters. Then a court, with a regularly
organized bench, bar, and constabulary, enforced the
execution of the laws, tried offenders in due form
and process, and inflicted the penalties affixed to
their violation. The plan worked smoothly and use-
fully for about two years, but at length a certain
class of students grew restive under the restraints
and penalties which were imposed ; for
None e'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law.
And in 1830, after a most animated, and on one
side quite impassioned, discussion in the whole body
of the students, a small majority of votes was ob-
tained against it, and the system was abolished.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 75
Our readers will see in the House of Students an an-
ticipation of the later College Senate.
When the Chapel and North College were finished,
the trustees found themselves deeply in debt. In-
deed the college came into existence as a chartered
institution with a debt of eighteen thousand dollars,
the greater part of which, however, was liquidated
by the thirty thousand dollar subscription. The
erection of the Chapel added some eleven thousand
dollars to the burden. 1 North College cost ten
thousand dollars more. The purchase of the lot of
land belonging to the estate of Dr. Parsons, on
which the president's house and the library now
stand, and the share taken in the new village church
that the college might have a place to hold its com-
mencements, swelled the sum still higher.
An effort was made to meet this indebtedness at
the time by private subscriptions and donations, 2
but the amount raised in this way was not even
sufficient to pay the bills for North College. For
the remaining and now constantly increasing indebt-
edness, no resource seemed to be left but an appeal
to the Legislature. The first application to the
Legislature for pecuniary aid was made in the win-
ter session of 1827. The petition signed by Presi-
dent Humphrey, in behalf of the trustees, sets forth
the pressing necessities of the institution, and how
they had arisen, asks nothing more than the means
1 The building cost fifteen thousand dollars, four thousand
of which was contributed by the Johnson legacy.
2 It was in this effort that Rev. Mr. Vaill was first appointed
agent of the college with a salary of eight hundred dollars,
viz., at the annual meeting of the trustees in August, 1829.
76 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
of defraying the expenses already incurred for the
accommodation of its increasing number of pupils,
and such further aids and facilities for the communi-
cation of knowledge as are indispensable to its con-
tinued prosperit)", and urges no claim except the un-
paralleled private munificence and individual efforts
by which it has been sustained, and the duty de-
volved upon the Legislature by the constitution,
and cheerfully discharged by them in reference to
the other colleges of the state, to foster institutions
of learning established by their authority, and gov-
erned in no small measure by trustees of their own
choice. This petition was referred to a committee of
both houses, who gave the petitioners a patient hear-
ing, and manifested a willingness on their part to aid
the college, but " they found the state of the public
finances incompatible with such aid," and hence felt
constrained to make an unfavorable report. This re-
port was accepted by both houses, and there the
matter rested for four years.
In the winter session of 1831, the trustees came
before the General Court again with substantially
the same petition, made more urgent by increasing
necessities, but only to meet with substantially the
same result. The committee, consisting of Messrs.
Gray and Lincoln of Worcester, from the Senate, and
Messrs. Baylie of Taunton, Marston of Newbury-
port, and Williams of Northampton, from the House,
recognized the necessities of the institution, as also
its merits and success. Indeed they made an admir-
able argument in favor of a grant, but, with a non
sequitur which surprises the reader, they concluded
with a recommendation that for the present, at least,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 77
the grant shall be withheld The last two sentences
of their report read as follows- "The degree of
public estimation which the college enjoys is evi-
denced by the unexampled success which has attended
the exertions of its officers, and which has placed it,
as regards the number of its pupils, in the third rank
among the colleges of the United States. Your
committee are not unmindful of the obligation which
the constitution imposes on the Legislature to cher-
ish and foster seminaries of learning, and if the
present state of the treasury would justify it, they
would not hesitate to recommend that a liberal en-
dowment should be granted to Amherst ; but under
existing circumstances it is their opinion that the
further consideration of the petition of Amherst
College for pecuniary aid be referred to the first
session of the next General Court." This report
met the prompt acceptance of the Senate, and, on
the same day, the concurrence of the House.
At the first session of the next General Court, which
commenced in May, 1831, the petition of the trustees
and the report of the committee of the last Legisla-
ture were referred to a joint committee, consisting of
Messrs. Lincoln and Brooks, of the Senate, and Messrs.
Huntington of Salem, Bowman of New Braintree,
and Hayes of South Hadley, of the House, who were
unanimously of the opinion that the public interest
required that pecuniary aid be afforded to Amherst
College, and submitted a resolve for that purpose.
The resolve gave the college fifty thousand dollars
in semi-annual instalments of two thousand five
hundred dollars each, but, owing to the shortness of
the summer session, the subject was again postponed.
78 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The state being now in funds, it was not doubted
that a grant would be obtained as soon as the Gen-
eral Court could have time to act deliberately upon
the subject. Accordingly a new petition was drawn
up by authority of the trustees and presented in
January, 1832. It was referred to a highly respecta-
ble committee, who adopted substantially the favor-
able report of previous committees, and unanimously
submitted the same resolve.
When their report came before the House for dis-
cussion in committee of the whole, the college was
attacked with great acrimony on the one hand, and
defended with distinguished magnanimity and ability
on the other. Mr. Foster of Brimfield, Mr. Buck-
ingham of Boston, Mr. Bliss of Springfield, and Mr.
Calhoun of Springfield, who was a trustee and who
was then speaker of the House, spoke ably and elo-
quently in the defence. Others desired to be heard
on the same side. But the majority was impatient
for "the question." The vote was taken. It went
against the college with "fearful odds," and on mo-
tion of Mr. Sturgis of Boston the whole subject was
indefinitely postponed. Thus, after a suspense of
five ) r ears, during which they had obtained the fa-
vorable reports of four successive committees of the
Legislature, were the hopes of the trustees blasted
in a moment, and the debts of the college returned
upon them with a weight which it was impossible
any longer to sustain.
After this result no time was lost in calling a spe-
cial meeting of the trustees to consider what was
to be done in this critical emergency. The board
met on the 6th of March. It was an anxious day,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 79
and direction was sought of Him who had hitherto
succored the college in all its perils. Letters full
of hope and encouragement were read from influen-
tial friends in different parts of the State, urging
them without delay to appeal to the public for the
aid which the Legislature had so ungraciously re-
fused. They accordingly resolved to make an im-
mediate appeal to the friends of the college, asking
for fifty thousand dollars as the least sum which
would relieve it from debt and future embarrassment.
A committee of their own body, consisting of the
president, Hon. Samuel Lathrop and Hon. William
B. Banister, was appointed to publish the appeal, and
President Humphrey, Professor Fiske, Rev. Joseph
Vaill, Rev. Sylvester Holmes of New Bedford, Rev.
Calvin Hitchcock of Randolph, and Rev. Richard S.
Storrs of Braintree, were appointed agents to solicit
subscriptions.
The appeal met with a prompt and hearty re-
sponse. The people of Amherst put their shoulders
again to the wheel and raised three thousand dollars
they had given little short of twenty thousand
dollars in money before. President Humphrey vis-
ited Boston the first week in April, and in a few days
had raised a subscription of seven thousand dollars
there. A subscription was started spontaneously
among the Amherst alumni at Andover fifty-seven
out of one hundred and fifty-three students at An-
dover at this time were alumni of Amherst and
they in their poverty subscribed from ten to twenty-
five dollars apiece.
Under the influence of such arguments and appeals,
evangelical Christians through the State rallied to
80 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
its support with such cordial good will that we
find them congratulating each other and the college
on the rejection of its petition by the Legislature.
At the commencement in August it was announced
that thirty thousand dollars had been subscribed. It
was feared that the remaining twenty thousand dol-
lars would come with great difficulty, but the
work went bravely on to its completion, and on
the last day of the year, December 31, 1832, the
news being received that the whole sum was made up
and the subscription was complete, the students ex-
pressed their joy in the evening by ringing the bells
and an illumination of the college buildings, thus
celebrating with the beginning of a new year what
they believed to be a new era in the history of the
college.
During the presidency of Dr. Moore, and the first
ten years of Dr. Humphrey's administration, the old-
fashioned system continued unchanged, according to
which morning prayers and the morning recitation
were not only held before breakfast, but were held at
hours varying from month to month, sometimes
changing almost from week to week, according to the
season of the year, so as to bring the recitation at
the earliest hour at which it could well be heard by
daylight. The breakfast hour was thus very late in
midwinter, and yet the light in cloudy weather was
often very imperfect for the morning recitation.
In 1833, by vote of the faculty, the bell for morn-
ing prayers was fixed at a quarter before five in sum-
mer and a quarter before six in winter. And this
was done at the request of the students, a large ma-
jority of whom petitioned for the change. This fact
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 8 1
is worthy of note, as illustrating the character and
spirit of the students at the time. And the arrange-
ment of recitations and study hours, which was thus
introduced, and which continued for many years, was,
in some respects, preferable either to that which pre-
ceded, or to any which has followed it. The student's
working day was thus divided into three nearly equal
parts, in each of which two or three hours were set
apart for study, and each period of study-hours was
followed immediately by a recitation. Recitations
at intervening and irregular hours were carefully
avoided, and in order to avoid them, the tutors, and
to some extent the professors, did not confine them-
selves to one department, but heard different divi-
sions of the same class at the same hour, in the
morning perhaps in Greek, at noon in Latin, and in
the afternoon in mathematics.
The observance of study-hours was enforced with
much strictness by college pains and penalties,
among which fines were perhaps the most frequent.
This was the day when fines were in vogue in all the
colleges, and when in Amherst College the system
rose to its highest (or sank to its lowest) pitch of
perfection. Fines were imposed for exercise or bath-
ing in study-hours, for playing on a musical instru-
ment, for firing a gun near the college buildings, for
attending the village church without permission. In
short, fines seem to have been the sovereign remedy
for all the ills that the college was heir to. The
records of the faculty in these days preserve the
memory of fines imposed on students who now adorn
some of the highest places at the bar, on the bench,
and in the pulpit, to say nothing of the medical pro-
82 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
fession. This much at least may be said to the
credit of the faculty, that they were impartial in
their administration; for we find a vote recorded
imposing a fine of fifty cents a week on any member
of the faculty who should fail to visit every week
the rooms of the students assigned him for such pa-
rochial visitation! But Professor Fiske entered his
protest, and this vote was soon rescinded.
At the annual meeting of the trustees in 1832, a
change in the vacations, which had been discussed at
the two preceding annual meetings, was adopted,
and went into effect the next collegiate year. The
vacations had hitherto been four weeks from the
fourth Wednesday of August (commencement), six
weeks from the fourth Wednesday of December, and
three weeks from the second Wednesday of May.
They were now changed to six weeks from the
fourth Wednesday of August, two weeks from the
second Wednesday of January, and four weeks from
the first Wednesday of May. The most important
feature of the change was that the long vacation,
which had hitherto been in the winter, was hence-
forth to be in the autumn. The new arrangement
was ideally better, perhaps, both for officers and
students, inasmuch as the autumn is the pleasanter
season for recreation, and the winter more suitable
and convenient for study. But it was quite unsuit-
able and inconvenient for that large class of students
who had been accustomed to help themselves by
teaching in the winter. The trustees provided that
they might still be allowed to teach twelve weeks of
each college year, including either of the three va-
cations, and it was hoped that they might find select
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 83
schools in the fall as remunerative as common
schools in the winter. But the experiment proved
unsuccessful, and, after a trial of eight years, in 1840
the college returned to a modified and improved
plan, of which, however, the essential principle was
a long winter vacation. This plan was gradually
superseded by the present arrangement, which pro-
vides for a vacation of ten weeks in the summer.
At their annual meeting in 1833, the trustees
voted to relinquish the old practice of having a fore-
noon and afternoon session at commencement, sepa-
rated by the corporation dinner, and at the com-
mencement in 1834 the new system of one session
was introduced, which has ever since continued, to
the entire satisfaction of all concerned.
In consequence of some sickness in the president's
family, the impression prevailed that the president's
house, which was built for Dr. Moore in 1821, was
damp and unhealthy. At a special meeting of the
board in October, 1833, trie Trustees requested the
prudential committee to ascertain how much of the
recent fifty thousand dollar subscription would re-
main after the payment of the college debts, and in
case there should prove to be a sufficient balance,
they authorized the committee to make immediate
arrangements for the erection of a new house, at an
expense not exceeding five thousand dollars. On
investigation, the prudential committee estimated
that after discharging all debts there would be a bal-
ance in the treasury of about four thousand dollars,
which, with the sum realized by the sale of the old
house, would be sufficient to cover the expense of
the new. They accordingly sold the old house for
84 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
two thousand five hundred dollars, and commenced
the erection of a new one on land recently purchased
of the Parsons estate, directly opposite the college
edifices; and "during 1834 and 1835 the house was
built, not by contract, but by day's work, and the
consequence was that when the bills were all in
they amounted to about nine thousand dollars." 1
At the annual meeting of the trustees in 1834,
they voted to appoint a special agent for the imme-
diate collection of the balance of the fifty thousand
dollar subscription, and directed the prudential
committee " to proceed with all convenient dispatch
to erect an additional college hall, provided they
can procure funds for the purpose by donation, or
by loan upon the security of a pledge of the building
to be erected and its income, for the repayment."
During the years 1835 and 1836, the process of grad-
ing the grounds in front of the existing edifices and
preparing a site for a new hall at the south end of
the row was commenced and carried forward at an
expense of two or three thousand dollars. But the
hall was not erected, doubtless for the very good
reason that the funds could not be obtained, and the
site was reserved for the erection of the Appleton
Cabinet under more auspicious circumstances.
At the same meeting of the board (1834), the tui-
tion was raised one dollar a term. At the annual
1 Reminiscences of Amherst College, pp. 58, 59. Dr. Hitch-
cock not only complains of the amount of the bills for which,
during Dr. Humphrey's absence in Europe, no one was will-
ing to be responsible, but he declares his preference for the
old house, especially in regard to its location. The old house
is now owned and occupied by the Psi Upsilon Society.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 85
meeting in 1836, there was a further addition of one
dollar a term, thus making the tuition at this time
eleven dollars a term, and thirty-three dollars a year.
At the same timej:he salaries of the professors were
increased from eight hundred dollars to one thou-
sand, and a corresponding increase was made in the
salary of the president. The tutors' salaries re-
mained as they had been for a few years previous,
viz., four hundred and fifty dollars. The last votes
at the meeting, one or two of mere form excepted,
were as follows: "Voted, that the prudential com-
mittee be directed, in view of the urgent necessities
of the college, to apply to the Legislature of this
Commonwealth at their next session for pecuniary
aid. Voted, that should the application to the Leg-
islature fail of success, or should it be deemed by
the committee inexpedient to make such application,
the prudential committee be further authorized to
adopt any such measures as may by them be deemed
expedient for procuring aid from such other sources
as may seem to promise the desired relief. "
The number of students at the close of the period
now under review, that is, in 1836, was large, and the
college was in a highly prosperous state. The
faculty was strong and popular, the standard of
scholarship, culture, and conduct was high, and not
a few of the most distinguished names on our general
catalogue are names of men who were graduated
during these years.
CHAPTER VI.
PERIOD OF REACTION AND DECLINE THE ANTI-SLAVERY
AGITATION AND REBELLION OF STUDENTS THREAT-
ENED BANKRUPTCY PUBLIC DISFAVOR RESIGNA-
TION OF PRESIDENT HUMPHREY.
THE largest aggregate number of students that
Amherst College enrolled on its catalogue at any
time previous to 1870-71 was in the collegiate year
1836-37, when the number was two hundred and fifty-
nine. The next year, 1837-38, it had fallen to two
hundred and six, and so it continued to decrease regu-
larly, till in 1845-46 it was reduced to one hundred
and eighteen, less than half the number nine years
before.
The number entering college began to diminish
some three years earlier. The largest number was
in 1833-34, when there were eighty-five freshmen,
and the whole number of admissions was one hun-
dred and six. The next year, 1834-35, there were
seventy freshmen, and the whole number of admis-
sions was ninety-nine. From this time, the number
entering college continued to decrease, till in 1843-44
the freshmen numbered only thirty-two, and the
whole number of new members was only forty-two.
Some of the causes which produced this remarka-
ble decline are sufficiently obvious. In the first
place it was doubtless to some extent a natural reac-
tion from the equally remarkable and almost equally
rapid increase of numbers in the previous history of
86
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 8/
the college. As the tide of prosperity had risen
very fast and high, so it sank with corresponding
rapidity to a proportionally low ebb. The growth
had been unprecedented, abnormal, and not alto-
gether healthy. The causes which produced it were
in part temporary, and so far forth the effect could
not be enduring. These causes had not indeed
ceased to operate, but they had lost in a measure
their pristine power. The first alarm, excited by
the defection of Harvard College and the churches
in that section, had in a measure subsided. Zeal for
orthodoxy and evangelical piety was no longer at a
white heat. The passion for missions and the edu-
cation of ministers had somewhat cooled. Revivals
were less frequent in the churches. The revivals
which marked the twenty years between 1815 and
1835 had given birth to the college, and nourished
it with a copious supply of young men recently con-
verted and full of zeal for the work of the ministry
and of missions. As revivals grew less frequent and
powerful, one of the principal sources of the pros-
perity of Amherst College began to fail.
The growth of the institution had unavoidably
changed somewhat its relations to the community
around it. The people of the village were still
friendly to the college, but they had ceased to re-
gard it as their own offspring or foster-child; they
could no longer welcome and cherish its two hundred
and fifty students as pets or wards in their own
families; the halcyon days of primitive and almost
pastoral simplicity, when their apple-orchards and
walnut-groves, their parlors and firesides, their
homes and hearts were open to the members of the
7
88 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
college generally, almost as if they were their own
sons, had gone never to return. Board was perhaps
fifty per cent, higher than it was at the opening of
the college. The influx of wealthy students, by
changing the tastes and habits of the community,
had increased in a still greater percentage the inci-
dental and unnecessary expenses. The term-bills,
including tuition and room-rent, which, at the first,
were only ten or eleven dollars per term, had now
risen to seventeen dollars, and the maximum of nec-
essary college expenses, including board, fuel, and
lights, which in 1834 was stated in the catalogue at
ninety-six dollars a year, was estimated in 1837 at
one hundred and fifty dollars. This was still con-
siderably less than at Harvard or Yale, but the dif-
ference was less than it formerly was, and the ex-
penses at Amherst were now greater than they were
at some of the other New England colleges. Rela-
tively the economy of an education at Amherst was
considerably less than it had been, and economy is
no small argument, especially with the class of stu-
dents who flocked to Amherst in crowds in the ear-
lier years of its history.
A still more important change had gradually come
over the relations between the students and the
faculty. The circumstances under which the col-
lege originated made its officers and students more
like one great family than they were in the older
and larger institutions, more so probably than they
were in any other college. The government was
truly a paternal government, and the students cher-
ished a remarkably filial spirit toward the president
and professors. But when Amherst came soon to
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 89
be the largest college in New England, with a sin-
gle exception, when it contained more than two hun-
dred and fifty students of all characters and habits,
from all ranks and classes of the community, and
from all parts of the United States, it was no longer
practicable to maintain so familiar and confidential
relations, it was no longer possible to administer the
government in the same paternal way, it was no
longer possible that the students should cherish just
the same filial feeling and spirit toward the faculty.
The men who composed the faculty might be the
same, it was the same president and the same lead-
ing older professors, under whose auspices the col-
lege had attained so soon to so large a growth, that
were now administering the government and giving
the instruction; yet they could not but draw the
reins a little tighter, they could not exercise the
same personal supervision, the same fatherly watch
and care over two hundred students which they had
extended to one hundred. They were not the same
students, they were not of the same age, class and
condition in life ; upon an average they were younger
and richer and less religious when they entered now
than they were ten or fifteen years earlier in the
history of the college; but even if they had been
the very same individual students, they could not
come so near to their officers, nor stand in the same
near and confidential relations, nor cherish quite the
same feelings of personal regard and affection, as
when they were fewer in number and were in some
sense joint-founders of the institution. There are
evils, difficulties, and dangers inevitably connected
with a large college, as there are with a large board-
90 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ing school, which almost preclude the possibility of
its realizing the ideal of a college, or doing in the best
way its whole and proper work; and among these
the wall of separation which rises up between the
faculty and the students is not the least.
Accidental circumstances about this time contrib-
uted to widen the breach. One of these was the
anti-slavery excitement. This affected Amherst
more than it did most of the Eastern colleges ; for
while it had an unusual number of Southern students
between 1830 and 1840,* it had also a larger propor-
tion than most of the colleges of that class of stu-
dents who were strongly, and some of them violently,
opposed to slavery. It was during this decennary,
as our readers will remember, that the anti-slavery
excitement, which temporarily subsided after the
Missouri Compromise, broke out with fresh violence
and agitated the whole country. The "Liberator, 11
started in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison for the
express purpose of agitating this question, was es-
tablished in 1831; the New England Anti-Slavery
Society (afterwards the Massachusetts) in 1832, and
the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. In 1834,
George Thompson came over from England and his
clarion-like voice rang through the land, and in
1835 Mr. Garrison was dragged through the streets
of Boston by an infuriated mob and saved from a
violent death only by incarceration in the city jail.
1 Among these were Benjamin M. Palmer of South Carolina
and Stewart Robinson of Virginia, who became so conspicuous
in the history of the late war. Mr. Palmer was a member of
the class of '35, but graduated prematurely in his junior year.
Mr. Robinson graduated with honor in the class of '36.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 9!
Such exciting scenes could not but deeply move the
feelings of young men in our colleges and profes-
sional schools. It was under such circumstances
that a colonization society and an anti-slavery so-
ciety were formed among the students at Amherst,
the latter in the summer of 1833, and the former a
short time previous, perhaps not more than two or
three weeks. Thus the college was divided as it
were into two hostile camps, and the war raged as
fiercely between these opposing forces in their classic
halls as that between the Greeks and Trojans of
which the young men read in the Iliad, and it lasted
quite as long before it fully came to an end. The fac-
ulty seeing that fellow-students, and even Christian
brethren, were thus set in hostile array against each
other, feeling that the college was not founded to be
a school of moral or political reform, and fearing
that its reputation as well as its peace and pros-
perity might thus be endangered, at length inter-
posed, and endeavored to persuade the members of
both societies to dissolve their organizations. The
members of the colonization society complied with
this request. The members of the anti-slavery so-
ciety returned answer that they could not conscien-
tiously dissolve the society by their own act, begged
the privilege of at least holding the monthly concert
of prayer for the slave, and, if they must needs dis-
band, prayed the faculty to do the work them-
selves. The faculty consented to their holding the
monthly concert of prayer and the continued exis-
tence of the anti-slavery society on certain condi-
tions, but after protracted deliberation and discus-
sion the members of the society decided that they
92 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
could not conscientiously either disband the society
or comply with the conditions for its continued ex-
istence. It only remained for the president, in be-
half of the faculty, to say to them: "As you can-
not comply with the conditions, your society must
cease to exist."
It cannot be doubted that the anti-slavery excite-
ment impaired somewhat the confidence and affec-
tion of a large portion of the students (and those the
most ardent and earnest students of the college) for
the faculty, and especially alienated some of the
most zealous of them from the president, who was
the organ of communication, and was regarded as
the author of the policy that was pursued. 1
But the opposition to the system of distinctive and
honorary appointments in college, which sprang up
about the same time, lasted longer and was still
more unfortunate in its influence. As early as 1834,
the junior class, under the influence of the dissatis-
faction attendant as usual on the appointments for
the junior exhibition, petitioned the trustees at
their annual meeting to abolish the system. Upon
this petition, the trustees voted, " That we think it
inexpedient to make any alteration at present on the
subject of said communication, but we recommend
that the faculty correspond with the other colleges on
this subject and obtain such information as may be
communicated for such improvement hereafter as
1 The an ti- slavery men of this period were under the im-
pression, right or wrong, that the sympathies of Professor
Hitchcock were with them, although the act of suppression
was communicated expressly as "the unanimous vote of the
faculty."
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 93
occasion may require." At their annual meeting in
1836, a petition was again presented, signed by
nearly, if not quite, all the members of the three
upper classes, asking for the abolition " of the pres-
ent system of appointments in this institution," and
suggesting, instead, that "such a division and ar-
rangement be made that all may have parts assigned
them, and alike enjoy the benefits arising from such
performances," or that "each of the three literary
societies in college should be permitted to have an
annual exhibition." 1 The action of the trustees
upon this petition is thus entered on their records :
"A petition having been presented to this board
signed by numerous members of Amherst College,
praying for the abolition of the system of appoint-
ments adopted in this college, Voted, that this
board deem it inexpedient to make any change at
present in the system provided for by the college laws
on this subject."
Meanwhile the faculty began to be besieged by
petitions from individual students asking to be ex-
cused from performing the parts assigned them on
the ground of conscientious opposition to the system
of honorary distinctions, and for a time the fac-
ulty granted these requests. At length it became
apparent that there was, if not a conspiracy, a set
purpose on the part of many students, some of them
1 This petition is preserved in the college librar)'. It is an
immense document some five feet long and a foot and a half
wide, bearing in bold and large hand the autograph signatures
of men now distinguished in every walk of life, and remind-
ing the reader in more ways than one of the original Declara-
tion of Independence.
94 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
perhaps really conscientious, but others manifestly
only disappointed in their own appointments, or
otherwise disaffected, to break down the system, and
that if they would have any exhibitions or commence-
ments, they must insist upon the performance of the
parts assigned for public occasions with the same firm-
ness and on the same principles as they required the
recitation of lessons or the performance of any other
assigned duty. They therefore declined to excuse ap-
pointees simply on the ground of conscientious scru-
ples without the assignment of some other reasons.
Among those who were excused in the summer of
1835 was one who had been appointed one of the
prize speakers from the freshmen, and having re-
quested to be excused "on grounds of conscience,"
his request was granted. Two years later, the same
student received an appointment for the junior ex-
hibition. Instead of performing the part assigned
him, he sent in a paper to the faculty, in which he
not only refused to perform, but expressed his refusal
in disrespectful language, and .after an ineffectual
effort by the president to obtain a retraction, the
faculty voted to require of him a written acknowl-
edgment, under penalty, if he refused, of being re-
moved from college.
The student refused to make the required acknowl-
edgment, and was accordingly removed from college.
The entire class, with a single exception, 1 now
1 David N. Coburn of Thompson, Conn., later Rev. Mr.
Coburn of Monson, Massachusetts. At least one other mem-
ber of the class, I believe, was not at college at the time and
took no part in these transactions, viz. Edward Blodgett of
Amherst, now Rev. Mr. Blodgett of Greenwich.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 95
rallied to the support of their classmate and joined
issue with the faculty by passing the following
resolution and sending to Gorham's friends a letter
to the same effect :
"Resolved by the junior class, June 24, 1837, that
in our opinion William O. Gorham has made every
concession which duty and justice require, and in
refusing to concede more we heartily approve of his
.principles. "
The next morning this resolution was found writ-
ten or painted on the wall in front of the chapel,
where it was read by all the students as they went
in to morning prayers. The faculty were soon
called together to consult in this emergency. They
felt deeply that it was a solemn crisis for them-
selves and for the college. They began their consul-
tation by asking counsel of God in prayer. After
much anxious deliberation they came to the conclu-
sion that such action by a class in college was sub-
versive of all government, and that they must meet
the issue with firmness or resign the helm into the
hands of students. They therefore " voted to re-
quire a confession of all the members of the junior
class who have taken measures inconsistent with their
obligations to obey the laws of college." The con-
fession is in the following words:
" It being an acknowledged principle that no stu-
dent who is permitted to enjoy the privileges of a
public literary institution, and who has promised
obedience to its laws, has a right to do anything to
weaken the hands of its faculty or in any way to
nullify any of their disciplinary acts, I deeply regret
that I did, without due consideration, vote for areso-
96 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
lution and sign a paper which tended to both these
results; and I hereby promise to abstain from all
similar interference in the government of Amherst
College."
The class hesitated and delayed, and it seemed for
a time as if the whole class would refuse to sign the
paper and be sent away. But by the interposition
of Gorham's friends, who were also friends of the
college, he was induced to sign the confession re-
quired of him with a trifling verbal alteration, and
then his classmates promptly followed suit and
signed the acknowledgment and promise required
of them.
But the effect on the college was immediately dis-
astrous. From this time, class after class went out
with more or less of the spirit of disaffection and
spread it through the community. Year after year
too many of the graduates went forth, not to invite
and attract students, but to turn them away by re-
porting that the government was arbitrary, the
president stern, severe, unsympathizing, unprogres-
sive, and even in his dotage, although, as Dr. Hitch-
cock remarks, 1 his subsequent history shows that he
was as well qualified, physically, intellectually, and
spiritually, as he had ever been for the place, and
the professors, some of them at least, incapable, un-
popular, and unfit for the office, although the work
of instruction was never more ably or faithfully,
never so assiduously and laboriously performed as
at this very time.
The president was the self-same man under whose
1 Reminiscences of Amherst College, p. 124.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 97
wise and able administration the college had risen
to such unexampled prosperity. The professors
were, for the most part, the same men under whose
government and instruction the Institution had pre-
viously prospered, who, when the tide turned after-
wards, were as popular as it often falls to the lot of
faithful professors to be, and whose lives have be-
come identified with the history of the college. It
is not necessary to mention their names. The
tutors of this period were some of the best scholars
that have ever been graduated here. Not a few of
them have since become distinguished as educators,
authors, men of science, eloquent preachers, and able
jurists. Six of them have been professors in this
and other institutions, viz., Charles B. Adams,
Thomas P. Field, John Humphrey, William A. Pea-
body, Roswell D. Hitchcock, and George B. Jewett.
It was during this period that the Graeca Majora
was dropped from the curriculum, and Homer,
Demosthenes, and the tragic poets began to be read
continuously as entire books instead of extracts,
and the Greek and Latin languages were for the first
time taught analytically in their relation to each
other and their cognate tongues and in the light of
comparative philology. At this time, to wit, in
1837-38, the whole system of monitorial duties, ex-
cuses for absence, marks for merit and demerit, the
merit roll, reports to parents, punishment of de-
linquents and honorary appointments, was revised,
reformed, methodized, made at once more just and
more efficient, and those principles and rules estab-
lished which, not without amendment of course, but
substantially, have regulated the practice of the
98 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
college in this important matter ever since. A cir-
cular letter was also prepared and sent to the parents
of freshmen and other new students, which ex-
plained the temptations and dangers of college life,
invited the co-operation of parents and friends, and
thus contributed much towards a better understand-
ing among all the parties concerned in the education
and training of the college. Such a letter continued
to be sent with good effect for many years after the
emergency out of which it sprang had passed away.
About the same time, a course of general lectures in
the chapel on study, reading, literature, and college
life was inaugurated, in which all the faculty in
rotation bore a part, and which proved highly ac-
ceptable as well as useful to the students. In short,
necessity proved the mother of invention and sharp-
ened the wits of the faculty to discover and apply
many new ways and means of promoting the welfare
of the students, and, if possible, the prosperity of the
college. These efforts, it is believed, were appreci-
ated by the undergraduates, and they were quite
contented and satisfied with the government and in-
struction of the college. But the spirit of disaffec-
tion was still spreading among the alumni, infecting
some of the older as well as the younger graduates,
and extending through the community; and the
number of students still continued to decrease.
At length the feeling of discontent and dissatis-
faction began to find expression through the press.
The causes of the decline of the college were dis-
cussed in newspapers and pamphlets, and writers
who were confessedly graduates and professedly
friends of the institution, published to the world
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 99
that the alumni were dissatisfied with the manage-
ment of the college, and it never would prosper with-
out a thorough reform, not to say a complete revolu-
tion. Those were dark days for Amherst College
days of cruel trial and suffering for its officers. The
trial of living on a half-salary a few years later was
nothing in comparison. Some of them carried the
sting of it to their dying day, and it still lingers in
the memory of the survivors.
If the college had been rich and independent, it
might have borne this trial. Indeed, if the college
had been independent, it would have been saved the
greater part of the trial, for complaints would then
have been in a great measure silenced, and disaffec-
tion nipped in the bud. But " the destruction of the
poor is their poverty." Poverty increased the disaf-
fection itself as well as sharpened the sting of it,
and the disaffection, by diminishing the number of
students, increased the poverty of the college. For
it had not at this time a single dollar of endowment, 1
and no college, however large or prosperous, re-
ceives for tuition one-half of what it costs. The
two subscriptions which had already been raised,
the one of thirty thousand and the other fifty thou-
sand dollars, were" immediately exhausted in the
payment of debts and other unavoidable expenses.
The college was, therefore, actually running in debt
at the time of its largest prosperity, and the debt
went on increasing as the number of students con-
tinued to diminish, till the outgoes exceeded the in-
come by fully four thousand dollars a year.
1 The Charity Fund went wholly for the support of benefi-
ciaries.
100 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Application was made to the Legislature for pecun-
iary aid in three successive years, viz., 1837, 1838,
and 1839. In each instance a joint committee of both
houses reported strongly in favor of the college, and
recommended in 1837 a grant of twenty-five thousand
dollars in ten annual instalments, in 1838 a grant
of fifty thousand dollars, and in 1839 a reference to
the next Legislature on the ground that there were
then no funds in the treasury.
In 1837 and 1838 the bill failed, both years in the
House, being rejected in the latter year by a vote
of 154 nays to 132 yeas. It is worthy of note, as
illustrating the change of public sentiment in Hamp-
shire County in comparison with former Legisla-
tures, that only one negative vote was now cast in
the whole county. In 1839 the petition was referred
to the next Legislature as recommended by the com-
mittee.
Despairing of aid from the state, the trustees soon
conceived the project of raising one hundred thou-
sand dollars by private subscription. This was
thought to be the smallest sum that would relieve
the college of existing embarrassments and leave a
balance for endowments sufficient to make the in-
come equal to expenditures. Rev. William Tyler,
of South Hadley Falls, was first appointed an agent
for obtaining subscriptions, and by his labors at
different times during the years 1839 and 1840 some
four or five thousand dollars were raised, chiefly in
Amherst. At the annual meeting of the trustees in
the latter year, it being thought that the shortening
of the winter vacation had operated unfavorably by
keeping away that class of students who were neces-
u JN x v XJ.TI i /
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. IOI
sitated to help themselves by teaching, the vacations
were changed back again to six weeks in the winter,
two in the spring, and four in the summer, the Com-
mencement, however, being placed on the fourth
Thursday of July instead of the fourth Wednesday of
August. But the number of students still continued
to diminish.
In 1841 the eyes of all turned to Rev. Joseph
Vaill, who had already proved himself a firm support
and a successful agent of the college in more than
one emergency, as the only person who could success-
fully perform the herculean labor of raising the money
which was indispensable to its very existence. He
accepted the office of general agent to which he had
been invited by the trustees at their annual meeting
in 1841, with the same salary as the professors, was
dismissed from his pastoral charge, removed to Am-
herst, and for nearly four years devoted himself to
unwearied labors and plans for the external affairs
and especially the pecuniary interests of the college.
In August, 1845, he was able to report subscriptions,
conditional and unconditional, to the amount of
sixty-seven thousand dollars, of which over fifty-one
thousand dollars had been collected by himself and
paid into the treasury. By reckoning in ten thou-
sand dollars, given during this time by David Sears,
eleven thousand dollars known by him to have been
bequeathed by will to the college during the same
time, and fifteen thousand dollars which he had the
written assurance of an individual's "full intention"
to pay for the founding of a professorship, the sum
of one hundred thousand dollars was made up, and
this statement was so far satisfactory to the subscrib-
102 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ers that the majority of those whose subscriptions
had been conditioned on the raising of the entire
sum of one hundred thousand dollars, now made them
unconditional.
But deduct from the fifty-one thousand dollars
which had been actually paid into the treasury by
Mr. Vaill at the close of his agency in 1845, the debt
which was reported to the Legislature as fifteen
thousand dollars in 1838,* the excess of the outgoes
above the income in the interval of seven years at
the rate of three or four thousand dollars a year, and
the salary and expenses of the agent, which exceeded
four thousand dollars, and it will be seen that very
little remained for endowments or even to counter-
balance a future excess of expenses. And yet the
annual expenses far exceeded the annual income,
and the number of students still continued to dimin-
ish. Things could not long go on in this way. To
raise money by subscription was only to throw it
into a bottomless morass which must after all before
long swallow up the institution. This was palpable
to all eyes, and was uttered from the lips of many.
The trustees felt it. They chose a standing com-
mittee of retrenchment. They reduced the number
of tutors, formerly four, to one. With their con-
sent, they deducted one hundred dollars each from
the salary of the President and the general agent,
and two hundred from that of each of the .professors.
But all this was quite inadequate. The college still
continued to flounder and sink deeper in the mire.
The general agent at length saw that the only ade-
1 Twelve thousand dollars in 1839. No one seems to have
known just what it was.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 103
quate remedy was to bring the expenses within the
revenue ; and he laid before the faculty the sugges-
tion, with an outline of the plan, which was adopted
by them and ere long turned the tide in the opposite
direction.
But before this remedy was tried or, perhaps,
thought of, the clamor had become loud and distinct
among the alumni and in the community for changes
in the faculty, and a change of administration. The
first officer who was sacrificed was Professor Fowler,
a gentleman of much learning and many accom-
plishments, but "unpopular," and, as the students
said, who certainly had the means of testing his
capacity in this respect, unable to maintain order in
his lectures, recitations, and rhetorical exercises.
Under the double pressure of the clamor of graduates
and the complaints of undergraduates, he resigned
his professorship to the trustees, at a special meet-
ing in December, 1842.
But this did not appease the clamor or meet the
emergency. A more shining mark was aimed at.
A more costly sacrifice was demanded. And at a
special meeting of the corporation in Worcester, in
January, 1844, with the trustees all present, under
the pressure of the emergency, and doubtless in an-
ticipation of the event, President Humphrey, in a
letter which shows his rare magnanimity and self-
sacrificing devotion to the " beloved institution with
which he had been so long connected," tendered his
resignation, to take effect whenever his successor
should be ready to enter upon the office.
The trustees, constrained by a felt necessity and
doubtless with sorrowing hearts, accepted the resig-
104 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
nation, and through a committee consisting of Mr.
Calhoun, Dr. Nelson, and Dr. Alden, returned the
following answer:
" Resolved, as the unanimous sense of this board,
That Dr. Humphrey retires from the presidency of the
college with our sincere respect and affection, which
have been steadily increasing from the commence-
ment of our mutual intercourse ; that we express to
him our gratitude for his invaluable services- as the
head of this institution, our highest regard for his
character as a successful teacher, a faithful pastor,
and a single-hearted Christian ; that our prayers will
accompany him, that his rich intellectual resources
and his humble piety may still be devoted for years
to come, as they have been for years past, to the
welfare of his fellow-men ; and that we invoke upon
him the continued favor and blessing of Heaven.
" Resolved, That one thousand dollars be presented
to Dr. Humphrey on his retirement, in addition to
his regular salary. "
The first gleam of sunshine from without which
had rested upon the college for several years, dawned
upon it in the darkness and sorrow of this meeting at
Worcester, in the donation of ten thousand dollars by
Hon. David Sears of Boston, which was the begin-
ning of his munificent " Foundation of Literature
and Benevolence," and not only the largest donation,
but the first donation of any considerable magnitude
that had ever been given at once by a single indi-
vidual.
But the college was not yet lifted out of the mire.
That was to be the result of many years of wise and
patient self-denial and labor. Two vacancies in the
. A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. IO5
faculty had at length been created. Now began the
more difficult task of filling them. At the same
meeting in Worcester at which they had accepted the
resignation of Dr. Humphrey, the trustees chose Prof.
E. A. Park, of Andover, president, and reappointed
Rev. J. B. Condi t, of Portland, professor of rhetoric
and oratory, together with the pastoral charge of
the college church. But both of these gentlemen
declined their appointments. At the next annual
meeting in August, 1844, the trustees chose Rev.
Prof. George Shepard, of Bangor, president, and
Rev. Jonathan Leavitt, of Providence, professor of
rhetoric and oratory, together with the pastoral
charge of the college church. Professor Shepard
declined the presidency. Rev. Mr. Leavitt so far
accepted the professorship as to call a council to con-
sider the question of his dismission; but the council
declined to dismiss him simply because he did not
press it, and it was generally understood that he did
not press it because on visiting Amherst his heart
failed him in view of the difficulties which beset the
college.
At this meeting, Hon. William B. Banister and
Hon. Alfred D. Foster resigned their places as mem-
bers of the board. Henry Edwards, Esq., of Boston
was elected in the place of Mr. Banister. At the
urgent request of the board, Mr. Foster consented
to withdraw his resignation. But a correspondence
with Rev. Mr. Vaill about this time, and his conver-
sations at a later day with Professor Hitchcock, show
that he had little hope that the college could be
maintained as anything more than an academy.
At a special meeting of the corporation in Amherst
IO6 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
in November, Rev. Aaron Warner was elected pro-
fessor of rhetoric and oratory, with a salary of one
thousand dollars.
At another special meeting at Amherst in Decem-
ber, the professors laid before the trustees the propo-
sition, suggested probably by Mr. Vaill, that they
would accept the income of the college, be the same
more or less, in place of their salaries, and pay out
of it also all the necessary running expenses of the
college, on condition that they be allowed to regu-
late these expenses and run the college, and with the
understanding that the agency for the solicitation of
funds should cease, and with the expectation that
Professor Hitchcock would be appointed president.
The trustees accepted the proposition of the faculty
as modified and set forth by themselves, and on this
basis they elected Rev. Edward Hitchcock, LL.D.,
president and professor of natural theology and
geology. In order to provide for the partial va-
cancy thus created in Professor Hitchcock's depart-
ment, they at the same time elected Prof. Charles
U. Shepard, of New Haven, professor of chemistry
and natural history, "to take effect provided Pro-
fessor Hitchcock accepts the presidency."
These appointments were all accepted, and on the
1 4th of April, 1845, the president-elect was inducted
into his office, the retiring president, at the request
of the trustees, performing the ceremony of induc-
tion and in due form handing over the keys to his
successor, the former having previously delivered a
farewell address, and the latter following with his
inaugural. It would have been the personal prefer-
ence of Dr. Humphrey to continue in office till com-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. IO/
mencement, and thus at the close of the year and
amid the concourse of alumni and friends usually
convened on that occasion, to take leave of his " be-
loved college" and her sons, so many of whom loved
and honored him as a father. But it was thought by
friends of the " new departure" that the delay might
embarrass the financial arrangement, and perhaps
affect unfavorably the incoming class. And with
characteristic magnanimity and self-abnegation, he
hastened to put off the robes of office and with his
own hands to put them upon his successor. In his
farewell address he says: "The period having ar-
rived, when, by the conditions of my resignation, I
am to retire from the responsible post which I have
occupied for twenty-two years, it was my wish si-
lently to withdraw with many thanksgivings to
God for his smiles upon the institution with which
I have been so long connected, and fervent supplica-
tions for its future prosperity. But having been
kindly and somewhat earnestly requested, by the
standing committee of the board, to prepare an ad-
dress for the present occasion, I have allowed myself
to be overruled, I hope not for the first time, by a sense
of public duty. It has been a maxim with me for more
than forty years, that every man is bound to avail him-
self of all such opportunities for doing good as Provi-
dence may afford him, with but a subordinate
regard to his own personal feelings or convenience."
He then proceeds to narrate concisely the history
of the college from the beginning, especially its
religious history, insisting with great earnestness
and eloquence, as he did in his inaugural, on a
truly Christian education in truly Christian col-
108 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
leges as the hope of the country, the church, and the
world, and closes with devout aspirations, with almost
apostolic benedictions on the college and its beloved
church, its honored trustees and guardians, his re-
spected and beloved associates in the immediate gov-
ernment and instruction, the beloved youth over
whose morals, health, and education it had been his
endeavor to watch with paternal solicitude, and the
esteemed friend and brother to whom he resigned the
chair, and with whom he had been so long and so
happily associated. There is an almost tragic
pathos and sublimity in these valedictory words and
last acts in the public life of this great and good
man. Few scenes in history, or the drama even,
have in them more of the moral sublime. The
sympathizing spectators hardly knew whether to
weep over the sad necessities which environed the
close of his administration or to admire and rejoice
in the moral grandeur and Christian heroism of the
man. And the feelings of the writer in narrating
these events have been somewhat the same as those
with which the disciples of Socrates listened to his
last conversations, as Plato describes them in the
Phaedon, " feelings not of pity, for they thought him
more to be envied than pitied, nor yet of pleasure,
such as they usually experienced when listening to
his philosophical discourses, but a wonderful sort of
emotion, a strange mixture of pleasure and grief,
and a singular union and succession of smiles and
tears."
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER VII.
PRESIDENCY OF DR. HITCHCOCK THE FACULTY MAN-
AGE THE FINANCES FIRST FOUNDATIONS FOR PRO-
FESSORSHIPS NEW BUILDINGS RESTORED PROSPER-
ITY DR. HITCHCOCK'S CHARACTER.
THE presidency of Dr. Hitchcock opened with au-
spicious omens. The donation of Hon. David Sears,
made the previous year (1844), was now just begin-
ning to manifest its benignant influence, and, being
the first large gift by an individual donor for the pur-
pose of an endowment, gave promise of other dona-
tions for like purposes. On the very day of the new
president's inauguration, Hon. Samuel Williston of
Easthampton, by a donation of twenty thousand dol-
lars, founded the Williston professorship of rhetoric
and oratory. The plan for preventing any further
increase of the debt which was formed before the
retirement of President Humphrey, but was condi-
tioned on the election of Dr. Hitchcock to the presi-
dency, having received the sanction of the trustees
and the written assent and co-operation of all the
professors, went into effect at the commencement of
the new administration. According to this plan, the
income of the college, administered and appropri-
ated by the permanent officers themselves with all
the wisdom and economy of which they were mas-
ters, after deducting all the necessary current ex-
loq
110 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
penses, was divided among them as their salary and
means of support. This, while it ensured economy
and inspired courage at home, enlisted sympathy
and restored confidence abroad; and a series of
measures followed which, during the less than ten
years of Dr. Hitchcock's presidency, extinguished
the debt, added an astronomical observatory, a
library, and two cabinets of natural history to the
public buildings, secured the permanent endow-
ment of four professorships, together with valuable
books and immense scientific collections, and doub-
led the number of undergraduates.
These remarkable results, however, were not to be
reached at once, nor without a previous season of
trial and struggle, of disappointment and discourage-
ment. The immediate increase of numbers which
was anticipated from a change of administration
was not realized. On the contrary, the year 1845-46,
which was the first collegiate year of the new presi-
dency, opened with the same number of freshmen as
the previous year, and with an aggregate of one
hundred and eighteen students instead of one hun-
dred and twenty-one. In 1846-47, the aggregate was
only one hundred and twenty, and there was an in-
crease of only one in the freshman class. Mean-
while there was no further addition to the funds,
and the president was receiving for his salary at the
rate of five hundred and fifty dollars, and each pro-
fessor at the rate of four hundred and forty dollars a
year. One at least of the trustees (one of the wisest
and most honored, though not the most hopeful and
courageous) was still doubtful whether it would not
be wiser to turn the college into an academy (for a
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. Ill
good academy was better than a poor college) ; and
what was still more discouraging and even alarming,
some of the most influential students were so doubt-
ful of the perpetuity of the institution that nothing
but the personal solicitation of the president in-
duced them to stay and graduate. No wonder if,
under such circumstances, the president and profes-
sors were sometimes desponding, and the very lights
sometimes seemed to burn blue at our faculty
meetings !
We now resume the general history of the college.
Being in Cambridge at the inauguration of Presi-
dent Everett in January, 1846, Dr. Hitchcock im-
proved the opportunity to call on Mr. Sears, in the
hope of inducing him to erect a building for scien-
tific purposes, which was greatly needed. But he
met with so little encouragement that he told Hon.
Josiah B. Woods of Enfield, with whom he fell in on
his return, that he had made up his mind to two
things: i. To go back to Amherst and labor on for
the college, as long as he could keep soul and body
together; and 2. Never to ask anybody for another
dollar! Mr. Woods told him that he was quite too
much disheartened, and that he thought he could
raise the whole or a part of the money needed for
the erection of such a building. Thus did hope and
relief spring from the very bosom of despair; for
this was the beginning of the effort which resulted
in the rearing on "Meeting-house Hill" of the
Woods Cabinet and Lawrence Observatory. And
the scientific reputation of Dr. Hitchcock, together
with his self-sacrificing labors, and the self-denial of
his colleagues, was the very fulcrum and standing
112 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
place (the TTOU <rr<5 of Archimedes) by means of which
Mr. Woods raised the money. He went to Hon.
Abbott Lawrence, and other men of like character
and standing in Boston and Lowell, and told them
it was a shame for such a man as Dr. Hitchcock, who
stood at the very head of American savants, to toil
and starve in Amherst. They were at first inclined
to doubt whether Mr. Woods had not overrated Dr.
Hitchcock's rank and reputation among men of sci-
ence. But he quoted the authority of Mr. Lyell,
whom he had heard say that the doctor knew more
of geology and could tell it better than any other
man he had met on this side of the Atlantic. " If
you still doubt it, however," said Mr. Woods, " I will
bring him down here, and you shall see for your-
selves." It was with great difficulty that Dr. Hitch-
cock was induced to show himself under such cir-
cumstances. But he went down ; these gentlemen
saw him, and were charmed alike by his wisdom and
his modesty. Hon. Abbott Lawrence subscribed
one thousand dollars; the balance of the money was
soon forthcoming; and by the removal of prejudice
and the enlightening of the public mind in influen-
tial circles in and around Boston, the way was pre-
pared for obtaining a grant from the Legislature.
Meanwhile, however, the president in his despon-
dency and almost despair had discovered another
and still richer mine. He gives the following ac-
count of it himself in his valedictory address:
" In the discouraging circumstances in which I
was then placed, I came to the conclusion that I
must resign my place. Yet I felt apprehension that
in the condition of our funds no one worthy the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 11$
place would feel justified in assuming it. I there-
fore determined to make an effort to get a professor-
ship endowed. And where was it more natural for
me to look than to one who only a short time before
had cheered us by the endowment of a professorship?
u It had become so common a remark among the
officers of Amherst College, that if any respectable
friend should give us fifty thousand dollars, we should
attach his name to it, that I felt sure it would be
done ; and I recollected, too, the last words of Pro-
fessor Fiske when he left us: * Amherst College will
be relieved ; Mr. Williston, I think, will give it fifty
thousand dollars, and you will put his name upon
it.' I felt justified, therefore, in saying to him,
that if his circumstances would allow him to come
to our aid in this exigency by founding another pro-
fessorship, I did not doubt this result was to follow.
He gave me to understand that in his will a pro-
fessorship was already endowed, and that he would
make it available at once, if greatly needed. Nay,
he offered to endow the half of another professorship,
provided some one else would add the other half.
But as to attaching his name to the college, he felt
unwilling that I should attempt to fulfill that prom-
ise, certainly during his life.
"The half professorship thus offered was soon
made a whole one by Samuel A. Hitchcock, Esq. , of
Brimfield. And, oh ! what a load did these benefac-
tions take from my mind ! For several years, each
returning commencement had seemed to me more
like a funeral than a joyful anniversary, for I saw
not how the downward progress of the college was
to be arrested. But now, with the addition of thirty
114 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
thousand dollars to our funds, I began to hope that
we might be saved. But the kindness of Providence
had other developments in store for us.
"These events occurred in the winter of 1846,*
while the Legislature of Massachusetts was in session.
We had often appealed to them unsuccessfully for
help; and I feared that, when the generous benefac-
tions of individuals should be made public, we
should seek in vain in that quarter for the aid which
should in justice be given us. I therefore requested
permission of the trustees, by letter, to make one
more application to the government. They allowed
me to do it, and the result was a donation from the
state of twenty-five thousand dollars. The passage
of the resolve met with less opposition than on for-
mer occasions. Perhaps the following incident,
communicated to me by a member of the Legisla-
ture, may appear to the Christian to be connected
with this fact :
" The bill for aiding Amherst College came up on
Saturday, and met with strong and able opposition, so
that its friends trembled for its fate. On Saturday
evening, a few members of the Legislature were in the
habit of meeting for prayer. That evening the bill
for aiding the college formed the burden of conversa-
tion and of supplication, and each one agreed to
make it the subject of private prayer on the Sabbath.
Monday came, the bill was read ; but to the amaze-
ment of these praying men, opposition had almost
disappeared, and with a few remarks it was passed.
How could they, how can we, avoid the conviction
1 The writer must mean 1846-47. It was in 1847 that the
grant was voted by the Legislature.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 11$
that prayer was the grand agency that smoothed the
troubled waters, and gave the college the victory,
after so many years of bitter opposition and defeat?"
It is hardly necessary to add, what Dr. Hitchcock
believed as fully and insisted on as strenuously as
any of us, that prayer, in this case, was accompanied
by exertion, and faith by works ; and " by work
faith was made perfect." In proof of this, we have
only to notice the rare, and not accidental, number
of distinguished graduates and other friends of
the college who were at that time members of the
Legislature. Hon. Wiliam B. Calhoun was presi-
dent of the Senate. Among the senators, most of
whom were friendly, it is not invidious to name
Jonathan C. Perkins, an alumnus, and Joseph Avery,
one of the founders and trustees of Mount Holyoke
Seminary, as especial friends. In running the eye
over a list of the members of the House of Represen-
tatives, we notice the names of Henry Edwards of
Boston, Otis P. Lord of Salem, Alexander H. Bul-
lock of Worcester, John Leland of Amherst, John
Clary of Conway, Henry Morris of Springfield, and
Ensign H. Kellogg of Pittsfield. Mr. Woods, who
watched the bill pretty closely, said that to no one
in the Senate was the college more indebted than to
Hon. C. B. Rising, one of the senators from Hamp-
shire County, who, when it was proposed uncere-
moniously to reject the petition, rose and spoke
manfully and ably in defense of the institution.
In 1847, Hon. David Sears also made an addition,
large, liberal, and unique, to the Sears Foundation
of Literature and Benevolence. By what considera-
tions he was influenced may be seen from his letter,
Il6 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
which was read at the dedication of the Woods Cab-
inet and the celebration which was connected with
it : " While the benefactors of the college are thus
honored," says he, "the faculty of the college
should come in for their share of gratitude. I have
been a silent, but not inattentive observer of them.
I have been informed of their devotion to their liter-
ary labors, of their self-denials, of their voluntary
surrender of a part of their moderate salaries, re-
serving only enough for a bare subsistence, to re-
lieve the college in its necessity. Such disinterested
zeal stands out brightly, and merits an honorable
record."
While money was thus flowing in from individual
donors and from the treasury of the state, Professor
Adams presented to the college his great zoological
collection, and Professor Shepard offered to deposit
his splendid cabinet as soon as a fireproof building
could be erected suitable to receive it.
"See now," says Dr. Hitchcock as he reviews this
period in his Reminiscences, "see how altered was
the condition of the college! More than one hun-
dred thousand dollars had flowed in upon it in endow-
ments and buildings in a little more than two years,
as follows :
Williston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory, . $20,000
Graves Professorship of the Greek Language and
Literature, 20,000
Hitchcock Professorship of Natural Theology
and Geology, . . . . . . . 22,000
Donation from the State, . . . . . 25,000
Sears Foundation, 12,000
The Woods Cabinet and Observatory, . . . 9,000
,000
OF THE
[UNIVERSITY^
CALIFORNIA-
THE BARRETT GYMNASIUM.
WOODS CABINET AND OBSERVATORY.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 1 1/
" Along with the pecuniary aid there came also a
rich profusion of specimens, either presented or on
deposit, whose value is poorly expressed in money.
If only half their present value, we must add from
thirty-five to forty thousand dollars to the above sum.
Was it enthusiasm in me to speak of the change as
follows: 'Our debts were cancelled and available
funds enough left to enable us to go on with economy
from year to year and with increased means of in-
struction. The incubus that had so long rested upon
us was removed; the cord that had well-nigh throt-
tled us was cut asunder, and the depletion of our
life-blood was arrested. Those only who have
passed through such a season of discouragement and
weakness can realize with what gratitude to God and
our benefactors we went on with our work. '
" The great additions to our fund, made in the lat-
ter part of 1846 and the first part of 1847, were not
made public till after a special meeting of the trus-
tees, which took place July 6, 1847. This was the
most delightful trustee meeting I had ever attended.
Those venerable men, Drs. Fiske, Packard, Vaill,
Ely, Ide, William B. Calhoun, and John Tappan,
George Grennell, Alfred Foster, Samuel Williston,
Linus Child, David Mack, Ebenezer Alden, and
Henry Edwards, whom Dr. Humphrey and myself
had so often met with a discouraging story of debt and
an empty treasury, were now for the first time to be
told of God's wonderful goodness in turning our cap-
tivity and answering their long-continued and ear-
nest prayers. They were to have a little respite, be-
fore they died, from the incessant demands upon their
beneficence and labors with which they had ever been
Il8 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
met. It was a matter of high gratification to see how
happy they were in their subsequent visits to Amherst,
to see how everything was altered for the better as the
fruit of their long toil, and sacrifice, and prayers."
The chief business of this meeting of the trustees
was the appropriation of the newly received grants
and donations, and the naming of the new buildings
and professorships. The first appropriation was for
the payment of the debt, then amounting to twelve
thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars, for this
was the sore and heavy burden, and Mr. Sears had
wisely made it a condition of his donations that the
college must pay its debts before it could receive the
full benefit of his foundation. The debt was paid
partly from the funds of the college and partly from
the grant of the state. The remainder of the
twenty-five thousand dollars granted by the state
was appropriated to the endowment of the Massa-
chusetts professorship of chemistry and natural his-
tory. The term bills were reduced from forty-eight
to forty-two dollars a year, and it was voted to remit
the full amount of the regular term bills to indigent
students preparing for the Christian ministry. The
new cabinet received the name of Hon. Josiah B.
Woods, and the observatory that of Hon. Abbott
Lawrence. The professorship of natural theology
and geology, endowed by Hon. Samuel Williston
and Samuel A. Hitchcock, Esq., was named from
the latter; the professorship of Greek and Hebrew,
endowed by Mr. Williston, was named the Graves
Professorship, with a double reference to the maiden
name of Mrs. Williston and to Colonel Graves, one of
the founders; and a new professorship of Latin and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 119
French, temporarily endowed, was called the Moore
Professorship, in honor of the first president. Ar-
rangements were made for making tip in full the defi-
cient salaries of the president and professors, and the
sum of twelve hundred dollars was appropriated for
repairs and placing blinds upon the college edifices.
No man ever knew better than Dr. Hitchcock how
to make the most of any success in the way of public
impressions. The placing of blinds upon the win-
dows of the dormitory buildings was a stroke of pol-
icy for impression on the students, equal to Napoleon's
gilding the dome of the Invalides for dazzling the
eyes of the Parisians, although under very different
circumstances. Not less suited to please students
was his policy of making to them the first formal
and public announcement of all these donations and
the action of the trustees. The scene is thus de-
scribed in the Reminiscences : " The meeting closed
in the afternoon, and as the students were yet igno-
rant of the whole matter in which I knew they felt a
deep interest, I took the opportunity at evening
prayers to read the votes, and I shall never forget
the scene that followed. At first they did not seem
to comprehend the matter, and they gave no demon-
stration of their feelings, especially as two of the
trustees were present. But as the successive an-
nouncements came out, they could not restrain their
feelings and began to clap, and by the time the last
vote was read, the clapping was tremendous, and
when they were dismissed and had reached the outer
door of the chapel, they stopped and the cheering was
long and loud."
At the annual meeting of the trustees in August,
120 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
*
1847, they appointed "a committee to consider in
what manner we should testify our gratitude to God
and our benefactors, in view of recent favors to the
college." They reported that, "at such time as the
president and professors shall regard as suitable, a
public meeting be held in Amherst, with an invita-
tion to the friends and benefactors of the college to
be present, and that Hon. William B. Calhoun be re-
quested to deliver an address on the occasion." The
meeting was deferred till June 28, 1848, in order to
connect with it the dedication of the new cabinet and
observatory, which would not be finished and filled
with specimens at an earlier date. The occasion was
one of deep interest. The president's address of wel-
come was in the same strain of wonder and gratitude
to God and our benefactors which we have seen in the
foregoing pages. Mr. Calhoun in his address of com-
memoration and dedication said : " The waning for-
tunes of this institution have for years brought to our
hearts gloom, despondency, almost despair. Heaven
again beams upon us with blessings. To Heaven let
us not cease to offer the incense of thanksgiving.
We render our thankfulness and gratitude to all our
benefactors. We leave behind us the night of gloom
through which we have passed. We receive the col-
lege into the fellowship of new and animated hopes.
The massive structures upon which are inscribed the
names of the generous donors, rising up in the midst
of this landscape, these hills and valleys of unsur-
passed grandeur and beauty, are now dedicated to the
cause of science and truth. Long, ever may they
stand thus dedicated. Here may science remain
tributary to virtue, freedom, religion. Here may
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 121
there be inscribed on all these walls and in every
heart, Christo et Ecclesice."
In response to the call and remarks of President
Hitchcock, brief addresses were made by Governor
Armstrong, Mr. Woods, Mr. Williston, Professor
Silliman, Professor Shepard, Professor Redfield, and
President Wheeler, and letters were read from ex-
President Humphrey, Prof. B. B. Edwards, Mr.
Sears, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Gerard Hallock, and
others. It was a day of great rejoicing, and in the
name of all who participated in this festival of joy
and gratitude, in the name especially of the generous
donors whose benefactions were thus celebrated, and
whose names are inscribed upon those walls and
tablets, the writer of this history here enters his pub-
lic protest against any hasty or needless removal of
these buildings. Dedicated to science and religion,
and inscribed with the names of the generous donors,
we can not but say with the distinguished orator of
the day, " Long, ever may they stand, thus dedicated,
and thus inscribed."
At the dedication of the observatory, President
Hitchcock remarked: "We should be very faithless
and ungrateful to doubt that the same Providence
which has done so much for us the past year will
send us a fitting telescope if it is best for us to have
one, and send it, too, just at the right time." In his
valedictory address he was able to say: "This
prediction, through the liberality of Hon. Rufus
Bullock, has been fulfilled, and a noble telescope has
just been placed in yonder dome, which, through
the great skill and indefatigable industry of Alvan
Clark, Esq., who has constructed it, is one of the
122 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
finest instruments of its size that ever graced an
observatory. In the hands of Mr. Clark it has al-
ready introduced to the astronomic world two new
double stars never before recognized one of which
is probably binary. "
After the first three years of his administration,
having already succeeded beyond his most sanguine
hopes in relieving the college from debt, and estab-
lished it on a solid pecuniary foundation, while at
the same time he saw it increasing in numbers, and
enjoying a literary and religious prosperity corre-
sponding with its financial condition, President
Hitchcock might well have said, " Now lettest Thou
Thy servant depart in peace." He now began to
press upon the trustees a wish to retire from the
presidency. But instead of listening to his sugges-
tion, they pressed him to recuperate his health and
spirits by a tour in Europe, and in the spring of 1850
he and Mrs. Hitchcock reluctantly set out on their
journey. He travelled through Great Britain, France,
Belgium, Switzerland, and a portion of Germany;
explored the geology of those countries, examined
the agricultural schools, in the discharge of a com-
mission unexpectedly received from the government
of Massachusetts; visited and studied the scientific
collections, the galleries, and museums; observed
with equal interest the natural features and the
moral and religious aspects of the countries ; attended
the meeting of the British Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science at Edinburgh, and the Peace
Congress at Frankfort-on-the-Main, and returned
home, " having been absent one hundred and fifty-
eight days, and travelled ten thousand six hundred
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 123
and forty-seven miles" (these details are character-
istic), and having expended for himself and wife less
than two hundred dollars over and above what he re-
ceived from the government and from individuals
with whom he travelled, or fell in, and who insisted
on defraying portions of his expenses. On reaching
Amherst, he was received at the entrance of the town
by the students, who gave him an enthusiastic wel-
come, and in the evening expressed their joy by an
illumination of the college buildings.
Encouraged by the Sears foundation, a portion of
whose income was restricted to the purchase of books,
by a liberal donation from George Merriam, Esq., of
Springfield, and by an informal meeting of a few
friends of the college in Salem (Judges Perkins and
Huntington, and Richard P. Waters, Esq.), Professor
Edwards brought the subject before the trustees at
their annual meeting in 1850, and they authorized an
immediate effort to procure means for erecting a
library, and increasing the number of books. Pro-
fessor Edwards was chairman of the committee on
whom this duty was devolved. The work of raising
the money was commenced by Professor Tyler, who
started a subscription (where subscriptions in behalf
of the college have most frequently taken their start)
in the town of Amherst. Three thousand dollars were
raised on the spot before any effort was made else-
where. Another thousand was raised in the vicinity,
chiefly in the neighboring churches. Mr. Merriam
had already given his pledge of fifteen hundred dol-
lars. Mr. Williston, who, in this as in all the other
efforts in behalf of the college, was the largest bene-
factor, stood ready with a donation of three thousand
124 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
dollars. But the larger and more difficult part of the
work was done by Mr. George B. Jewett, who, when
he commenced it, was a teacher of a private school in
Salem, but soon after was made professor of Latin
and modern languages. Among the largest sub-
scriptions out of Amherst were those of David Sears
and Jonathan Phillips of Boston. When the sum of
fifteen thousand dollars was procured, ten thousand
was devoted to the building, and the remainder to the
purchase of books. The building was planned by
the same architect as the cabinet and observatory
(Mr. Sykes). It was begun in 1852, and finished in
1853. Professor Edwards, alas, did not live to see it
completed. His friend, Professor Park, had the
melancholy satisfaction of delivering an address at the
dedication. The erection of this building, which now
contains only the reading room, the committee room,
and the working rooms of the present library, intro-
duced a new era in the architecture on the college
hill. Hitherto brick had been the sole material. The
library, according to the suggestion of Professor
Edwards, was of stone, thus inaugurating what might
be called the age of granite. And it was scarcely
less a new epoch in regard to the new books that
were placed on the shelves, and the new facilities
which were now afforded for reading and study.
At a special meeting of the trustees at Amherst,
October n, 1852, they established a scientific de-
partment, designed to meet the wants of graduates
who wish to pursue particular branches of science
and literature beyond the regular four years' course,
and of other young men who desire to study some
subjects without joining the regular classes. This
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 12$
department grew naturally out of the rich and ex-
tensive cabinets and the valuable laboratory which
the college possessed, together with the rare cluster
of scientific professors gathered here under the au-
spices and guidance of a scientific president. As
adopted by the corporation and published in the
catalogue for 1852-53, the 'department comprised nine
branches, which were to be taught chiefly by the
regular professors of the ordinary college course
(although two or three other gentlemen resident in
the town were called in to supplement deficiencies),
as follows: i. Geology by the President; 2. Mathe-
matics, Natural Philosophy, and Engineering by
Professor Snell; 3. Chemistry by Professor Clark;
4. Agriculture by Rev. J. A. Nash; 5. Mineralogy
by Professor Shepard; 6. Zoology by Professor
Adams; 7. Botany, without any special professor;
8. Psychology and History of Philosophy by Professor
Haven ; 9. Philology by Professors Tyler and Jewett,
and English Literature by Professor Warner. The
department was to be entirely independent of the
regular college course, but students were to be
allowed to attend any of the regular courses of lec-
tures.
The plan went into operation in January, 1853.
In 1853-54, there were twelve scientific students; in
1854-55, there were seventeen ; in 1855-56, there were
none reported, and in 1857-58, the plan drops out of
the catalogue. In the triennial, only seven men are
recorded as having so completed the course as to re-
ceive the degree of bachelor of science.
This experiment differed from that of the " parallel
course" twenty years previous in that the scientific
126 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
department was entirely independent of the regular
college course, instead of being parallel and incor-
porated with it, and, not professing to be an equivalent
for it, did not confer the same academic degree. But
it came to nearly the same issue, and that partly, if
not chiefly, for the same reasons. The work of in-
struction was devolved almost entirely on the profes-
sors in the regular course, who already had as many
duties and responsibilities on their hands as they
could faithfully and successfully discharge. More
money and more men were requisite to make it a suc-
cess, and even with these the older institutions in or
near the large cities have the advantage over Am-
herst in regard to purely scientific, as also in regard
to professional, education. The practical lesson of
these experiments seems to be, let Amherst adhere
to her original and proper work, the educational work
of a New England Christian college.
At the annual meeting of the trustees in August,
1853, President Hitchcock offered to make a donation
to the college of his collection of fossil foot-marks,
valued by Professor Shepard at thirty-five hundred
dollars, on condition that the friends of the college
would raise five or six hundred dollars for the in-
crease of the collection, and the trustees would make
the necessary arrangements for the permanent exhi-
bition of it in the geological cabinet. Before the
offer was made, the first condition had already been
met through the agency of Dr. Hitchcock himself.
Of course the trustees were not slow to comply with
the second condition, and thus the Doctor's private
ichnological cabinet became the property of the
college, just as his mineralogical and geological cab-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. I2/
inets had been given to the college, fifteen years pre-
viously, on very similar conditions. These cabinets
are now of inestimable value, especially the ichno-
logical, which is, perhaps, the choicest and richest of
the kind in the world, and so, besides attracting
thousands of ordinary visitors every year, has made
Amherst a kind of Mecca to geologists and savants of
all nations. It would have been easy, and perhaps
perfectly right, for Dr. Hitchcock to have kept it in
his own hands, increasing it constantly by purchase
and exchange and leaving it as his private property.
But that was not his way. It was characteristic of
him rather to give it to the college, without imposing
any other conditions, except such as would make it
more valuable and useful.
At the same time Mr. Edward Hitchcock, Jr., pre-
sented to the college his collection of Indian relics,
the fruit of half a dozen years' industry, and then
consisting of seven hundred and twenty-one speci-
mens, stipulating only that the collection should be
placed in suitable cases, and should never be merged
with any other collection. Thus was the foundation
laid for the Gilbert Museum of Indian Relics.
At a special meeting of the trustees at Amherst,
November 21, 1853, Professor Aaron Warner resigned
the professorship of rhetoric and oratory, and Rev.
Thomas P. Field, then pastor of a Presbyterian church
in Troy, N. Y., was elected to fill the vacancy. Three
days after this meeting of the corporation, President
Hitchcock addressed a letter " to the Hon. Nathan
Appleton and other executors of the will of the late
Hon. Samuel Appleton," rehearsing the donation and
growth of the zoological collections of Professor
128 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Adams, describing the history and value of his own
collection of fossil foot-marks, which he further en-
forced by the testimonies of Dr. Gould and Professor
Agassiz, explaining the inconvenience, the utter in-
adequacy, and also the insecurity of the rooms in
which these collections were now deposited, and
modestly inquiring whether the erection of a suitable
building to receive and protect them all would not
come within the scope of the liberal bequest of two
hundred thousand dollars which Mr. Appleton left for
the purposes of literature, science, and benevolence.
For an entire year Dr. Hitchcock received no answer
to this letter, and he had relinquished all hope that
it would meet with any response.
Meanwhile his health and spirits, somewhat re-
cruited by his foreign tour, had relapsed to such a
degree that he felt he could no longer endure the
burden of the presidency, and must insist on being
relieved. With this view he summoned a special
meeting of the trustees in Boston on the nth of
July, 1854, and there resigned his office into their
hands, assigning as his only reason " the inadequacy
of his health to sustain the labors, especially those
pertaining to the government of the institution." It
was voted " that the resignation of President Hitch-
cock be accepted, to take effect when a successor can
be appointed, and that his services be retained in the
professorship of natural theology and geology."
At the annual meeting of the board, August 7, 1854,
Rev. William A. Stearns was chosen president and
professor of moral philosophy and Christian theo-
logy. On Tuesday evening, November 21, 1854,
Dr. Stearns was installed pastor of the college
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 129
church by an ecclesiastical council of which Rev.
Dr. Vaill was the moderator, and Rev. Dr. Blagden
scribe. The sermon was preached by Rev. Dr.
Leavitt of Providence. Dr. Hitchcock gave the
charge to the pastor. The right hand of fellow-
ship was presented by Rev. Mr. Paine of Holden,
and an address made to the college by Rev. Dr. J.
S. Clark of Boston. On Wednesday, November 22d,
the inaugural services were held in the village
church. After singing by the college choir and
prayer by Rev. Dr. Clark, an historical address was
delivered by the retiring president, including the
ceremony of giving the college seal, charter, etc., as
an act of induction to his successor, and closing
with the announcement of a donation of ten thousand
dollars to the college from the trustees of the late
Samuel Appleton, for the erection of a cabinet of
natural history. Dr. Hitchcock had relinquished
all hope of such a donation. He had written his
farewell address in this state of mind. After describ-
ing the rich zoological collections of Professor Adams
with the testimonies of Professor Agassiz and Dr.
Gould to their unequalled scientific value, he had
written : " Yet this fine collection is spread into
three apartments and is imminently exposed to fire.
To secure a new building to receive it, with the still
more exposed collection of fossil foot-marks, has long
been with me an object of strong desire and effort;
and it is among the deepest of my regrets, on leaving
the presidency, that it remains unaccomplished."
"Thus had I written," he continues in the address
as he delivered it, " thus had I written only a few
days ago, and thus had I expected to leave this sub-
130 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ject to-day. But a kind Providence has ordered
otherwise. Last evening a letter was received, an-
nouncing the gratifying intelligence that the trus-
tees under the will of the late Hon. Samuel Apple-
ton of Boston had appropriated, only ten days ago,
ten thousand dollars of the sum left by him for sci-
entific and benevolent purposes to the erection of
another cabinet the Appleton Zoological Cabinet
by the side of the Woods cabinet on yonder hill."
Thus he, who in his experiments in the chemical
laboratory was always expecting to fail, but never
did fail, was now successful beyond his most sanguine
expectations, for as usual he had asked for the small-
est sum that could possibly answer the purpose, and
he received nearly twice as much as he asked; and
the close of his administration was marked, like its
beginning, by donations that surprised himself
scarcely less than they delighted the friends of the
institution.
Dr. Hitchcock's address was followed by a few
beautiful and appropriate remarks from Col. A. H.
Bullock of Worcester, communicating the doings of
the trustees in reference to the aforesaid donation.
Mr. Bullock's remarks on the reception of this gift
were received with universal and hearty applause.
Two or three degrees were conferred by the retiring
president, among others one on Alvan Clark, Esq., of
Cambridge, maker of the magnificent telescope re-
cently presented to the college by Rufus Bullock,
Esq., of Royalston, Mass. After a few minutes' re-
cess, a Latin oration of a congratulatory character
was delivered, according to appointment, by Hasket
Derby, a member of the senior class. The closing
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 13!
exercise was the inaugural address by the new
president. 1
If Dr. Humphrey was our Moses, the giver of our
laws and institutions, Dr. Hitchcock was our Joshua,
who led us into the promised land, conquered our
enemies by making them friends, and gave us secure
and permanent possession of houses that we did not
build, vineyards and olive-yards that we planted not.
It is not difficult to discern the distinctive features
of this portion of our history. It was in many re-
spects a new era, and that in no small measure the
result of a new policy. It was the end forever,
let us hope of living beyond our means and running
in debt. Dr. Hitchcock had seen and suffered the
effects of that process some of the most impressive
pages in his " Reminiscences" 2 are those in which he
describes the Sisyphean labor which it imposed, and
the fatal consequences to which it led; and he
adopted at the outset the rule to which he rigidly
adhered, and which he earnestly recommended to all
public institutions, to erect no buildings and make
no improvements until the funds were actually ob-
tained.
It was the end of general subscriptions to meet
current expenses. It was the beginning of endow-
ments by large donations from individuals. 3 It was
the beginning of grants by the state. It was the age
1 See Discourses and Addresses at the Installation and In-
auguration of the Rev. William A. Stearns, D.D., as Presi-
dent of Amherst College, and Pastor of the College Church.
2 See pp. 122-24, 138-42.
3 Mr. Sears' first donation was made before the close of Dr.
Humphrey's presidency. But it came unsought, and was only
such an exception as proves the rule.
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
132 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
of growth and expansion in cabinets, collections, and
materials for the illustration of the physical sciences.
Our archaeological museums also owe their origin
to this administration. At the same time and this
fact deserves the attention of those who may have
supposed that Dr. Hitchcock was a one-sided presi-
dent, and gave the institution growth and impulse
only in one direction it was the period in which
the library building was erected, and new books were
placed on the shelves of such a kind, and to such an
extent, as to make it almost a new library.
Last, not least, it inaugurated the reign of compar-
ative peace. From the commencement of Dr. Hitch-
cock's presidency, there was less of hostility abroad
than there had ever been before, and more than for
many years previous of peace, quietness, content-
ment, and satisfaction at home. This was partly the
result of a change of time and circumstances, and
partly of a more paternal, perhaps we might say
fraternal, administration suited to the times. While
he was true and faithful to the faculty and govern-
ment under his predecessor, and bore with the spirit
of a martyr the opprobrium and harm of measures
and methods of discipline which he did not approve,
it was no secret that he preferred a more conciliatory
policy. During his own presidency, the majority of
the faculty were often inclined to a more rigid dis-
cipline. And the trustees were unanimously of
the opinion that, if the administration could be im-
proved in any particular, it was by greater firmness
and strictness in the enforcement of the laws. Yet
President Hitchcock continued to the last to believe
in and rely on moral suasion, and personal, social,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 133
and Christian influence, as the sceptre of his power.
Perhaps he had no more faith than his colleagues in
the good sense, right disposition, and honorable pur-
pose of the students, or in the goodness of human
nature generally, for he was a firm believer in the
doctrine of total depravity. But he certainly had
less faith in the efficacy of the rod, either in family
or college government. He could give as many
reasons as Plutarch for " delay in the punishment of
the wicked," and not the least among these was
that therein he imitated the patience and forbearance
of the Deity.
He magnified the civilizing and refining influence
of the family upon students. He did not believe in
the dormitory system. 1 If he had been called to
establish a new institution, he would have had no
dormitories. Having dormitories in Amherst Col-
lege, he did all he could to counterbalance their evil
influence. To this end, as well as for the increase of
personal acquaintance and influence, he introduced
the custom of inviting the freshmen, soon after enter-
ing college, to meet the families of the faculty and
others from the village, at his own house; and al-
though the sophomores sometimes surprised and
grieved the good man by improving the opportunity
to enter their rooms and turn them topsy-turvy, and
perhaps pile up their beds in his own front yard, yet
he never gave up his faith in the "freshman levee,"
or in the influence of cultivated Christian families
in town over college students. In accordance with
this same general idea, the senior levee, which un-
der the presidency of Dr. Humphrey was only a col-
1 Cf. Reminiscences of Amherst College, p. 143.
134 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
lation at the president's house at noon, immediately
after the close of the senior examination, was at once
changed by Dr. Hitchcock into a social party in the
evening.
The professors and tutors who were associated
with Dr. Hitchcock in the government and instruc-
tion were, for the most part, one with him in aim
and spirit some added much to the lustre of his
presidency ; and were he to write the history of his
own administration, he would ascribe a large share
of its success to their hearty and able co-operation.
Aaron Warner, Nathan W. Fiske, Ebenezer S. Snell,
Charles U. Shepard, William S. Tyler, Charles B.
Adams, Henry B. Smith, William A. Peabody, Joseph
Haven, George B. Jewett, William S. Clark, and
Thomas P. Field, make up the entire list of the pro-
fessors who at different times composed his faculty.
The list of the tutors comprises Rowland Ayres,
David Torrey, Lewis Green, Marshall Henshaw,
Francis A. March, Albert Tolman, Leonard Hum-
phrey, William Howland, Henry L. Edwards, Wil-
liam C. Dickinson, John M. Emerson, Samuel Fiske,
George Howland, and John E. Sanford with Lyman
Coleman, Jabez B. Lyman, instructors; William B.
Calhoun, James L. Merrick, and John A. Nash,
nominally lecturers or instructors, and Lucius M.
Boltwood, librarian.
Three of these professors died, still in office, dur-
ing the presidency of Dr. Hitchcock. One of them
was the ripe scholar and veteran professor who, al-
most at the beginning of that presidency, went up
from the city where our Lord was crucified to walk
the streets of the New Jerusalem. Professor Fiske
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 135
was an accurate and refined scholar, a deep thinker
and clever reasoner, a powerful preacher, a patient
and thorough teacher, an acute metaphysician, and a
profound theologian, whom God did, and man did not,
make a doctor of divinity. He was not a popular
preacher. But no man has ever preached to the
reason, the conscience, and the hearts of students in
Amherst College with such overwhelming power as
Professor Fiske, especially in times of deep religious
interest. Another who seemed born for a collector
and classifier of all facts in natural history, the youth-
ful Aristotle of our lyceum, went to the West Indies
partly for his health, but chiefly to enlarge his scien-
tific collections, and there fell a sacrifice to his zeal
for science when he had only just commenced his
career of discovery, though he had already achieved
more for his favorite studies than many a savant
accomplishes in a long life. 1
A third, scholarly and refined, full of hope and
promise, had just entered his professorship, and just
begun to inspire his class with his own enthusiasm
for the language and literature of the old Romans,
when he was suddenly stricken down by the de-
stroyer. 2
The value of Dr. Hitchcock's presidency to the
institution can not be overestimated. His weight of
character and his wise policy saved the college. Hav-
ing accomplished the object for which he accepted the
office, he resigned the command with far greater
satisfaction than he took it, and fell back again into
the ranks rose again, let us rather say, for so he
1 Prof. C. B. Adams.
2 Prof. William A. Peabody.
136 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
viewed it, to those unclouded heights of science and
religion on which he had before delighted to stand,
but which now appeared to him more beautiful than
ever as he looked back upon the region of clouds and
storm through which he had passed. At the request
of the trustees he retained the professorship of nat-
urar theology and geology. According to his own
proposal, he received only half the usual salary of a
professor. He held this professorship almost the
same length of time as he had occupied the presi-
dential chair, between nine and ten years. For some
years he lectured on his favorite themes with his
characteristic ardor bordering on enthusiasm. He
delivered lectures before lyceums and addresses on
public occasions. He revised his principal works
and published new ones. The second edition of his
"Religion of Geology," considerably enlarged, was
issued in 1859 ; the thirty-first edition of his " Elemen-
tary Geology," re-written, appeared in 1860, and the
third edition of the "Phenomena of the Seasons,"
with additions, in 1861. In 1859, the faculty and
students presented him with a beautiful service of
silver plate, which gratified him much as an expres-
sion of the gratitude and affection of those whom he
had so tenderly loved and so faithfully served. The
same year he was brought to the borders of the grave.
Physicians and friends despaired of his life. If he
had died then, the world would have said, it was a
completed life. But not so heavenly wisdom. Be-
fore Heaven could say to him, " Servant of God, well
done," he must live on through five more years of
suffering, years of dying they almost seemed to him,
still writing and publishing, still, like the aged Athe-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 137
man sage, learning many things, still interpreting
nature and studying his own frame so fearfully and
wonderfully made, still lecturing to his classes even
after he was too feeble to go to them and therefore
invited them to'come to him, still making large and
choice collections for his cabinets, still caring and
planning for his beloved college, still toiling to en-
large the boundaries of science, still watching with
jealousy his own heart, the spiritual condition of the
college, and the interests of evangelical religion,
all the while battling heroically with death and " him
that has the power of death," and nobly illustrating
the triumph of mind over matter, of faith and phil-
osophy over all the powers of darkness even in the
last extremity. All his life-time he had been more
or less subject to bondage through constitutional de-
pression and fear of death. But he died leaning his
head on the Cross of Christ almost visibly present by
his side, and wondering at the riches of redeeming
and sustaining grace. At the time of his death,
which was on the 27th of February, 1864, he had not
quite reached the age of seventy-one. On the 2d of
March, a great congregation, consisting of the faculty
and students, trustees and alumni of the college,
scientific men and clergymen from every part of the
state, together with great numbers of people of all
classes from Amherst and the neighboring towns,
assembled in the village church to attend his funeral
and thence followed the body to its last resting-place
in the cemetery. The spot is now marked by a plain
granite obelisk bearing, together with the dates of
his birth and death, this simple and truthful inscrip-
tion:
138 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
EDWARD HITCHCOCK,
PASTOR IN CONWAY,
PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR IN AMHERST COLLEGE.
A LEADER IN SCIENCE,
A LOVER OF MAN,
A FRIEND OF G OD,
EVER ILLUSTRATING
"THE CROSS IN NATURE,
AND
NATURE IN THE CROSS. "
But his best and most enduring monument is in
his work in the college which he restored, and in
the influence which he exerted upon the church and
the world by his tongue and his pen, and through
the life and character of his three or four thousand
pupils. Nor can the history of Mount Holyoke
Seminary, any more than that of Amherst College, be
written without large reference to Dr. Hitchcock, of
whose family Miss Lyon was a member when she
was laying broad and deep her plans for founding it,
and whose tongue and pen were among the chief
organs for communicating those plans to the public.
These two institutions will perpetuate his name and
his influence so long as they faithfully represent that
idea science and religion which was the motto of
his life.
^UNIVERSITY,
OF
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PRESIDENCY OF DR. STEARNS SCHOLARSHIPS AND
PRIZES NEW BUILDINGS THE COLLEGE CHURCH
THE BEGINNING OF THE SYSTEM FOR PHYSICAL EDU-
CATION THE WALKER AND OTHER PROFESSORSHIPS
OPTIONAL COURSES.
PRESIDENT WILLIAM AUGUSTUS STEARNS was born
in Bedford, Mass., March 17, 1805. His father, Rev.
Samuel Stearns of Bedford, and both his grand-
fathers, were ministers of the gospel. His brothers
are well known as distinguished teachers and preach-
ers. He was prepared for college at Phillips Academy,
Andover, and graduated with honor at Cambridge, in
1827, with such classmates as Professor Pel ton and
Rev. Dr. Sweetser. He went through the full course
of theological study at Andover, in the same class
with Dr. Brainerd of Philadelphia, Dr. Joseph S.
Clark, President Labaree, Professor Owen, and
Professor Park the class of '31. After teaching a
short time at Duxbury, he was ordained December
14, 1831, pastor of the church at Cambridgeport,
where he remained almost twenty-three years, hon-
ored and beloved by all his people as an able preacher
and wise pastor, identified with the public schools of
Cambridge, and greatly interested in Harvard Uni-
versity, and sustaining influential relations to the
cause of education and religion in Boston and vicinity.
139
140 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
This brief general statement will suffice to show how
different President Stearns's antecedents were from
those of either of his predecessors, and how these,
together with the breadth and balance of his char-
acter and his culture, qualified him to supplement
and complete their work.
The inauguration of President Stearns, of which we
have already given an account, took place on Wednes-
day, the 22d of November, 1854. After some grace-
ful allusions to the origin and early history, the
founders and former presidents of Amherst College,
of which he expressed the highest appreciation
though he himself was not an alumnus, and of which
he asked to be accepted as a true son though by
adoption, the inaugural address proceeds to define the
end or aim of education, which is to produce in the
person educated " the highest style of man," and then
to discuss the most essential ways and means, physi-
cal, intellectual, moral, and religious, by which that
end is to be accomplished. We shall see further on
how no'' a few of the ideas which the president thus
developed in his inaugural were realized under his
administration. The key-note of the address is con-
tained in the concluding sentences: "Young gentle-
men, your highest attainment is the attainment of
right relations toward God, and a concordance with the
other harmonies of the universe. There is one great
Central Life whose pulsations are beating through all
created worlds. When in addition to a profound and
brilliant scholarship, attended with high moral and
social excellence, and wise physical self-control, yon
come into sympathy with this great Life, so that your
spirit answers to that Spirit, as the pulsations of the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 14!
wrist keep time with those that are throbbing in your
heart, then will you be truly educated, then will you
have reached the highest order of man."
In the evening after the inauguration the students
expressed their good will to the new president and
their expectation of a prosperous and happy presi-
dency by an illumination of the college edifices.
"Welcome to President Stearns" was blazoned in let-
ters of brilliant light across the entire front of Middle
(now North) and South Colleges, and as he stood in
front of Woods Cabinet, admiring the brilliant specta-
cle, they gathered spontaneously around him, extem-
porized an address of welcome through a member of
the senior class, and drew from him a ready and hearty
response.
It will be remembered that one pleasant incident
of the exercises of inauguration day was the an-
nouncement of a liberal donation from the estate of
Hon. Samuel Appleton, for the erection of a zoologi-
cal and ichnological museum. President Hitchcock
had made the request a year previous, and had given
up all expectation that it would be granted. There
is reason to believe that confidence in the wisdom of
the new president conspired with admiration for the
genius and science of his predecessor in securing the
donation. However that may be, the time of the an-
nouncement was not accidental, and the donation,
while it formed a brilliant and appropriate finale to
the retiring administration, furnished also an auspi-
cious omen for the incoming presidency. Nor did the
omen prove fallacious. The Appleton gift was only
the beginning of a succession of donations and be-
quests, which amount in the aggregate to nearly eight
142 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
hundred thousand dollars, and which mark the presi-
dency of Dr. Stearns beyond even that of Dr. Hitch-
cock, as the period of large and liberal foundations.
Even the Legislature turned a comparatively will-
ing ear to our petitions, and twice more opened,
though not very wide and apparently for the last
time, the treasury of the Commonwealth to supply
the wants of Amherst College. The aid from the
state in 1859 was granted the more readily doubt-
less because other institutions shared in it, and some
of them more largely than Amherst College. The
bill which became a law April 2, 1859, provided,
that after a certain sum had been received into the
state treasury from the sale of the Back Bay lands in
Boston, one-half of the proceeds of subsequent sales
should be added to the Massachusetts school fund,
and the other half appropriated in certain propor-
tions, as it accrued, to five institutions of learning in
the Commonwealth, until the Museum of Compara-
tive Zoology should have received an amount not ex-
ceeding one hundred thousand dollars ; Tufts College,
fifty thousand dollars; and Williams College, Am-
herst College, and the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbra-
ham, twenty-five thousand dollars each. No part of
these appropriations was to be paid, however, until
satisfactory evidence had been furnished by each in-
stitution that it had raised an equal sum by subscrip-
tion, or otherwise, from some other source. It was
further provided in the bill, that each of the three
colleges should establish three free scholarships.
These conditions were promptly complied with on
the part of Amherst College, and the first instalment
of six thousand dollars and a little more was paid
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 143
over in September, 1861, and the remainder of the
twenty-five thousand dollars in September, 1863.
On the 2yth of April, 1863, after repeated solicita-
tions by Dr. Hitchcock in person, the Legislature
made another special grant of two thousand five hun-
dred dollars to the department of natural history.
Here ends the history of grants from the state in
aid of Amherst College. Two appropriations of
twenty-five thousand dollars each and one of two
thousand five hundred dollars scarcely a third part
of what the state has granted to Williams, and not a
tithe of its donations to Harvard!
Of all the donations and bequests that have ever
come to Amherst College those of Dr. W. J. Walker
were the most surprising, because they came from
so unforeseen and unexpected a source. A graduate
of Harvard, and a resident of one of those cities in
the vicinity of Cambridge whose property seems to
be almost the birthright and inheritance of that uni-
versity, Dr. Walker wished and intended to endow
the medical department of his alma mater. Not
finding her sufficiently facile and pliant to his wishes,
he turned his attention to other colleges, and began
to give to them with a liberality which was fitted
and doubtless intended to show the authorities at
Cambridge how much they had lost. One of these
colleges was soon dropped from the list of his bene-
ficiaries for a similar reason. President Stearns had
the discernment to see the substantial excellence of
Dr. Walker's ideas, and he had the wisdom to humor
and guide his plans, instead of opposing or question-
ing them, and thus to enlist him more and more
zealously in the service of the college. The result
144 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
was that he gave Amherst at different times and for
different purposes one hundred thousand dollars in
his life-time, drew in forty thousand dollars from
other sources by making that the condition of his
own donations, and left in his will a legacy, the
annual income of which has averaged more than six
thousand dollars. The condition just alluded to
seemed at the time not only unfortunate, but imprac-
ticable and appalling. But thanks to the wisdom of
President Stearns and the benevolence of the friends,
chiefly old and tried friends of the college, the forty
thousand dollars was raised. Messrs. Samuel Wil-
liston, Samuel A. Hitchcock, and' James Smith, of
Philadelphia, gave ten thousand dollars apiece, and
Messrs. Alpheus Hardy, Henry Edwards, Ebenezer
Alden, Moses H. Baldwin, and others made up the
remaining ten thousand dollars, thus exhibiting a
generosity the more praiseworthy and thankworthy,
because their charities were to be merged in a
"Walker Building Fund," and their own preferences
were sacrificed for so great an interest of the insti-
tution.
The presidency of Dr. Stearns is emphatically the
period of scholarships and prizes. Aside from the
distribution of the income of the charity fund,
which really constituted so many ministerial scholar-
ships and is now actually called by that name, there
was not a single scholarship in existence at the be-
ginning of his administration. Eleazar Porter, Esq.,
of Hadley, has the honor of having established the
first scholarship in Amherst College. This was in
1857. Before the close of the administration there
were more than fifty scholarships over and above
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 145
those from the charity fund in the gift of the college,
varying in annual income from forty to three hun-
dred dollars each, and distributing each year over
four thousand dollars among the students.
The only prizes that existed prior to the adminis-
tration of President Stearns were those for elocution,
and these had usually been merely nominal, and
were paid out of the college treasury. The first reg-
ular prizes given by an individual for successive years
were given by J. H. Sweetser, Esq., a former resi-
dent of Amherst then residing in New York city.
These were given under the presidency of Dr. Hitch-
cock. In 1857 Hon. Alpheus Hardy of Boston estab-
lished the Hardy prizes for improvement in extem-
poraneous speaking; and now we have some two
thousand dollars distributed every year as prizes for
excellence in nearly all of the several departments.
Of the twelve college edifices that stood on College
Hill at the time of his death, six were added during
the presidency of Dr. Stearns. And the style and
character of these, as compared with the earlier
buildings, is more remarkable than their number.
The last three were built of stone, the Pelham or
Monson granite, and the last two, at least, in a plan
and style of architecture worthy of a material that
is at once so rich and so enduring. The new college
church alone cost as much as the whole five edifices
that came down from previous administrations ; and
Walker Hall cost as much as all the other buildings
on College Hill together, exclusive of the college
church. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that
President Stearns found the college brick, and left it
granite.
146 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The first building erected after the accession of
President Stearns was the Appleton Cabinet. This
was built in 1855. The building committee consisted
of Prof. Edward Hitchcock, Mr. Samuel Williston,
and Prof. William S. Clark, and Mr. H. A. Sykes was
the architect the same under whose direction the
Woods Cabinet and the library had been built. It was
the preference of Dr. Hitchcock that this edifice should
be placed on the west side of the Woods Cabinet,
where the danger from fire would have been less, and
where it would have been in convenient contiguity
with the geological specimens. The building com-
mittee acceded to his views and wishes, and at first
located it there, but their opinion was overruled by
that of the Prudential Committee, on the ground
that the appearance would be unsightly. Mr. Luke
Sweetser, who for many years has been a resident
member of the prudential committee, remonstrated
with special earnestness against that location, and, in
order to remove the chief argument in its favor, vol-
unteered to put up a lecture-room as an appendage
to the Woods Cabinet, if it could be done for a thou-
sand dollars. This view prevailed, and the Appleton
Cabinet was placed on the south wing of the dormi-
tories, thus taking the place of a new South College,
which had long been contemplated to balance the old
North College, then on the site of Williston Hall,
and the geological lecture-room was at the same time
attached to the Woods Cabinet. Mr. Sweetser de-
clined having his name affixed to it.
In 1857 the Woods Cabinet received another ap-
pendage in the Nineveh Gallery, which was erected
by Enos Dickinson, Esq., of South Amherst, on "the
o
t
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 147
site of the old church, where for thirty years he had
attended meeting, where he was baptized and made
a profession of religion," and of which he remarked
to Dr. Hitchcock, " that if he should desire to leave
his name anywhere on earth, that would be the
spot." 1 The building cost five hundred and sixty-
seven dollars. It is a small room, but it is probably
as large as that in the palace of Nimroud from which
the sculptured slabs were taken. The contents cost
some six hundred dollars. Their money value is at
least as many thousands, and their value to the col-
lege as educators and as memorials is beyond calcu-
lation. The sculptured slabs, six in number, some
of which now adorn the entrance to the college
library, came from the palace of Sardanapalus ; the
seals, cylinders, and bricks from Nineveh and Baby-
lon ; the coins of gold, silver, and copper, a thousand
in number, mostly ancient, and commencing with
those of Alexander the Great, were all procured and
sent at great labor and expense by Dr. Henry Lob-
dell, missionary to Assyria, of the class of '49, who,
in December, 1854, made his sixth visit to Nimroud
in order to dispatch the sculptures, and who died at
Mosul, the site of ancient Nineveh, on the 25th
day of March, 1855. For the gallery and its contents
the college is indebted ultimately and entirely to the
agency of Dr. Hitchcock, who encouraged Dr. Lob-
dell to send the specimens, raised the money to pay
all the expenses, superintended the whole business,
and in short manifested scarcely less interest in these
footprints of former generations of men, than in the
ichnolites of the pre-Adamic earth in his own cabinet.
1 "Reminiscences of Amherst College."
148 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The next public buildings were the result of a
calamity which, as not unfrequently happens, proved
a blessing in disguise. One cold and stormy night
in the winter of 1857, when the northwest wind blew
almost a hurricane and the thermometer was many
degrees below zero, the old North College caught
fire in a student's room. The occupants of the room
and nearly all the occupants of the building were in
attendance on the meetings of the literary societies
in the Middle and South Colleges. Before they
could give or get the alarm, the fire had progressed
so far as to forbid even the attempt to extinguish it.
All efforts were directed toward saving the other
buildings. Had the wind been in the north or north-
east, this would have been impossible. Being in the
northwest the flames and burning fragments were
for the most part driven to the eastward ; otherwise,
in spite of all exertions, Middle College must have
taken fire, and to all human appearance the chapel,
South College, and the newly-erected Appleton Cab-
inet would all have been swept away by the con-
flagration. By midnight or a little later, North Col-
lege with no small portion of its contents the
furniture and books of students had gone up in a
whirlwind of flame or had been reduced to ashes.
Such was the uproar of the elements that night that
the writer in his own house in the edge of the village,
not half a mile away, heard no alarm and knew noth-
ing of the calamity till, early the next morning, he
was summoned to a faculty meeting called for con-
sultation in the emergency. When he arrived on the
ground, nothing remained but the blackened brick
walls enclosing a heap of smoking ruins. The fire
[UNIVERSITY,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 149
was an undoubted blessing in that it enlisted the
sympathy of friends and ere long gave us two better
buildings in its stead. The appeal of the faculty in
behalf of the students, some of whom had lost every-
thing but what they had on their persons, met with
so prompt and hearty a response that ere long we
issued a card saying that no more was needed. And
scarcely had the ruins ceased to smoke, when, with
characteristic promptness as well as generosity, Mr.
Williston, that unfailing friend of the college, vol-
unteered to erect on the site a new edifice containing
a chemical laboratory, rooms for the libraries and
the meetings of the two literary societies, and an
alumni hall, if the trustees would engage, with the
insurance and additional subscriptions, to replace
the lost dormitory on another site. This condition,
which, like Dr. Walker's in regard to Walker Hall,
was, of course, intended only to double the benefac-
tion, was accepted by the trustees, and the new build-
ings were both erected in 1857, the same year in
which the old dormitory was burnt. Both edifices were
built under the general direction of Mr. Williston,
Mr. Charles E. Parkes of Boston being the architect,
and Professor Clark and Mr. Luke Sweetser being
associated with the former as building committee in
the erection of East College. Thus, to express in
Dr. Stearns' own language the "great blessing"
which resulted from the "great catastrophe," "two
new buildings sprang up from the ashes of the old,
one of them Williston Hall, so comely in appearance,
so convenient in arrangement, so generously be-
stowed, and so full of invitation to the returning
graduate as he comes up from the village to the
ISO A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
college grounds; the other, East College, which the
prophets represented as destined to be taken down
and rebuilt, or moved bodily to another spot." l
The dedication of the two buildings, delayed for
several reasons, took place on the i9th of May, 1858.
The trustees held a special meeting on the occasion.
Mr. Williston and Mr. Sweetser reported the results
of their labors, and formally delivered the buildings
into the hands of the trustees. President Stearns, on
the part of the trustees, made a suitable response.
Prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Vaill, and Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher delivered an address, in which,
as fitly as eloquently, he discoursed on institutions
as a means of perpetuating influence.
The next building was the gymnasium, now aban-
doned for a more modern building. This was com-
menced in the autumn of 1859, and completed in the
summer of 1860. Hon. J. B. Woods, Prof. W. S.
Clark, Hon. Samuel Williston, and the president
were appointed a committee, with full powers to col-
lect funds, procure plans, select a site, and erect the
building. " Subscriptions were obtained by Prof.
W. S. Clark, Prof. W. S. Tyler, and some others, to
the amount of about five thousand dollars. For the
other five thousand dollars the college resorted again
to borrowing." 2 The building was planned by the
same architect as Williston Hall and East College,
Mr. Charles E. Parkes of Boston. President Hitch-
cock says: "It is massive in appearance, without
1 Address of Welcome.
2 Dr. Hitchcock's "Reminiscences." The trustees had al-
ready borrowed five thousand dollars to supplement the sub-
scriptions for East College.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. I$I
much architectural beauty, though in conformity
with architectural rules." To the eye of the writer,
it is one of the most beautiful buildings on the col-
lege campus. It has the beauty of fitness and the
beauty, rare in our day, of a severe simplicity. The
builders had the good sense and good taste to return
to the use of stone, 1 instead of brick, in which their
example has been followed in subsequent buildings,
and will be followed, we trust, in all coming time.
Upon the completion of the building, the name of
" Barrett Gymnasium" was given to it, from Dr.
Benjamin Barrett of Northampton, who had contrib-
uted liberally toward its erection. Dr. Barrett after-
ward put in at his own expense a gallery at the west
end, for the convenience of spectators, and contrib-
uted more or less each year while he lived, for re-
pairing the building, improving the apparatus, and
ornamenting the grounds. And at his death, in
1869, he left in his will a legacy of five thousand
dollars, the income of which is to be annually ex-
pended for similar purposes.
The principal of the Walker building fund, one
hundred thousand dollars, was filled up in 1864, and
at a special meeting of the trustees in November,
1866, they appointed a building committee of their
own number. This committee consisted of Presi-
dent Stearns, Hon. Samuel Williston, Hon. Alpheus
Hardy, Hon. Edward B. Gillett, and Samuel Bowles,
Esq. 8 The corner-stone of the building was laid on
1 The same that was used in the library building, viz. , the
Pelham gneiss or granite.
2 A committee, consisting of the president, Professor Snell,
Professor Seelye, Hon. S. Williston, and Hon. A. Hardy, was
II
152 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the loth of June, 1868; and it was not till the 2oth
of October, 1870, that Walker Hall was opened with
appropriate ceremonies. Thus more than six years
had elapsed since the money was raised, and more
than seven, almost eight, years since Dr. Walker
made his first offering of twenty thousand dollars in
January, 1863, before the edifice was completed and
set apart for its scientific uses : tarn diu Roma conde-
batur. But it was right and wise to take a long time
in building a structure that was expected to endure
a long while. There was an intrinsic difficulty in
uniting and harmonizing so many diverse interests.
The whole department of mathematics and astron-
omy, the recitations, lectures, and apparatus of the
professor of natural philosophy, the Shepard Cabinet
of Mineralogy, and rooms for the trustees, the presi-
dent, and the treasurer, were all to be brought be-
neath one roof, and what seemed for a time quite im-
practicable, nearly all these rooms must needs be,
where all the living rooms of a house in this climate
ought to be, on the south side. When these conflict-
ing interests were all reconciled there still remained
the scarcely less difficult question of a convenient
and beautiful location. The college campus, though
sightly, is far from being " siteful ;" and a site satis-
factory to all concerned, and suitable for such a
building, was found at length only by the purchase
and annexation of three or four additional acres on
the north side.
appointed at a special meeting of the board in Boston, in
January, 1863, to procure plans and estimates. But a build-
ing that should cost only forty thousand dollars was then con-
templated. The plan was afterward enlarged to meet the
enlarging views and the increasing liberality of Dr. Walker.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 153
Several architects and landscape-gardeners were
consulted in the settlement of these vexed questions.
More than one architect also presented plans for the
building. The plan which best satisfied the parties
chiefly concerned, and indeed the only plan which
solved the almost insoluble difficulties of the problem
and united beauty with convenience, was that of
George Hathorne, of New York. This plan was
adopted, and he became the architect of the building.
The contract for the masonry was given to Richard
H. Ponsonby, and that for the carpenter work to C.
W. Lessey. The immediate oversight was entrusted
to William A. Dickinson, Esq., of Amherst. The
laying of the corner-stone with due form and cere-
mony took place on the forenoon of Class Day, June
10, 1868. Hon. Edward Dickinson presided and in-
troduced the services. Prayer was offered by Rev.
Dr. Vaill. The stone was placed with appropriate
ceremonies by the senior class, who had desired to
honor their Class Day by this act and had selected a
committee of their number for the purpose. A hymn
was sung by the college choir. A paper was read by
President Stearns, making some statements respect-
ing the character and design of the building, to-
gether with notices of Dr. Walker and the principal
donors. After a few extemporaneous remarks by
Hori. Alpheus Hardy and Professor Snell, the exer-
cises were concluded by singing the doxology and
the pronouncing of the benediction.
After an interval of two years and four months,
on the 2oth of October, 1870, the formal opening of
Walker Hall took place. The order of exercises was
as follows: In College Hall Music by the orches-
154 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
tra; Introductory prayer by Rev. Mr. Dwight of
Hadley; Address by President Stearns; Commence-
ment hymn, "Let children hear the mighty deeds."
In Walker Hall Music by the band ; Statement by
W. A. Dickinson, Esq. ; Prayer by Rev. Dr. Paine
of Holden ; Statement by Professor Snell ; Speeches
by members of the board of trustees and by gentle-
men from abroad; "Old Hundred," by the audience.
The opening of Walker Hall removed the last ves-
tige of scientific instruction from the old chapel
building, where all the departments dwelt together
for so many years, and left literature and philosophy
the sole occupants. Two things are illustrated by
this part of our history, first the progress of division
of labor in the college, and secondly the growth of
the institution in all its departments.
The original don at; on of thirty thousand dollars
for the college church was made in 1864. Seven or
eight years elapsed before the edifice was finished.
The delay was partly to give time for the increase of
the building fund, and partly owing to the difficulty
of fixing the location, but chiefly, as in the case of
Walker Hall, with the intention of building well
rather than building quickly.
The question of location long occasioned much
perplexity, and opinions differed widely on the sub-
ject. The unanimous verdict of the most distin-
guished architects decided the question in favor of
the present site, just in the rear of East College, but
necessitating at some time the removal of that build-
ing. "It might seem," says President Stearns in
his address at the laying of the corner-stone "it
might seem to our old graduates and to others who
OF THE
.UNIVERSITY
CALIFORNIA
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 155
have not studied the case, an unexpected and singu-
lar movement, to pass over, as we have done, into
what was regarded heretofore as the back-yard of
our college grounds, and crowd the new edifice into
the very mouth of the dormitory which has for some
years crowned the knoll. But looking from East
College, destined some time or other to be removed,
let me say to each one who doubts the propriety of
the location, Circumspice. Think of a pleasant Sab-
bath morning as our young men and families of
many generations of the future throng to the house
of prayer and see the beauty of the Lord spread over
the mountains and the intervale before us and the
quiet homes nestling within it, and tell me, will not
nature furnish inspirations to praise? If we need
further reason, it may be expressed in the brief
words of Mr. Williston, who has often surprised me
with the breadth and wisdom of his views on such
subjects. When the advice of the best architectural
and gardening skill in the country had been obtained,
and reasons set forth, and the final question was put
to that gentleman, Shall we plan the building for
present convenience or for a hundred years to come?
his immediate response was, 'Five hundred years to
come!'* The committee to whom by vote of the
trustees in 1869 the whole subject was referred, con-
sisted of President Stearns, William F. Stearns, Esq.,
Messrs. Williston, Hardy, and Gillett, and Mr. W.
A. Dickinson. William A. Potter, Esq., of New
York, was the architect. The church was erected
under the personal oversight and direct superintend-
ence of President Stearns, to whose watchful eye and
excellent taste, scarcely less than to the art and
156 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
science of the architect, the building owes its per-
fection.
The corner-stone was laid on the 22d of September,
1870, with the following order of exercises: Prelim-
inary Statement by the President; Introductory
prayer by Prof. W. S. Tyler ; Address by Rev. Chris-
topher Gushing, of Boston ; Placing of the stone by
the senior class (Class of '71); Hymn, "Christ is
our Corner-Stone ;" Prayer by Rev. J. L. Jenkins,
of Amherst ; Doxology ; Benediction.
The following passages from the president's pre-
liminary statement should be put on record as show-
ing his views and those of the donor, William F.
Stearns, Esq., in regard to this edifice: " We have
assembled to place the corner-stone of an edifice,
which, in accordance with the great idea of the col-
lege, 'the highest education and all for Christ,' is to
be, when completed and dedicated, the college
church. In pursuing this principle which has al-
ways actuated some of us, a desire has long existed,
since we have public worship together, to hold the
religious services of the Sabbath, as other churches
do, in a retired, consecrated Sabbath home, from
which all the studies and distractions of the week
should be excluded, and where the suggestions of the
place should assist us to gather in our thoughts, and
in the enjoyment of sacred silence to confer with
God.
" Some of the views of the donor in furnishing the
means for the college church were thus expressed to
the trustees at the time they were given, and in the
same spirit they were gratefully accepted by them.
i. The church is to be used by the college for strictly
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 157
religious observances, especially for Christian wor-
ship and preaching, and for no other purpose. 2.
The preacher shall always profess his full and ear-
nest belief in the religion of the Old and New Testa-
ments as a supernatural revelation from God, and in
Jesus Christ as the divine and only Saviour, 'who
was crucified for our sins and raised again for our
justification/ and generally for substance of doctrine
in the evangelical system or gospel of Christ as un-
derstood by the projectors and founders of the col-
lege. 3. The preacher in the pulpit, and in all the
exercises of this church, shall exhibit that sobriety,
dignity, and reverence of manner and expression
which becomes the sacredness of the place, and is
in keeping with those solemn emotions which true
Christians are supposed to experience."
The college church, not less than Walker Hall,
embodies an idea and a department. A new depart-
ment, as we shall see further on, was founded the
same year in which funds were set apart tor building
the church. The college church represents this de-
partment, gives it as it were a body and a form, and
expresses the idea, not only of a place set apart ex-
pressly for the Sabbath worship and service, but also
of a professorship whose undivided energies should
be sacredly devoted to the religious welfare of the
college. Combining in its architectural plan and
style the beautiful and the useful of successive ages,
it represents the religion of the college as uniting all
that is true and good in the past history of the church
with whatsoever things are pure and lovely in our
own age; and being unquestionably the brightest
architectural jewel on the brow of College Hill, it
158 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
fitly expresses the paramount excellence and im-
portance of the religion of Christ in college education.
After the close of the war, several unsuccessful ef-
forts were made to secure a suitable memorial for
those students who had sacrificed their lives for their
country. A public hall adorned with relics and
trophies of the war, a lecture room and professorship
of history, a monument on the grounds, a monumen-
tal group of statues and tablets within doors, all
these were contemplated, some of them voted by the
alumni and attempted, but all, for different reasons,"
proved unsatisfactory, or at least unsuccessful. This
difficult question found at length an unexpected and
most satisfactory solution in connection with the col-
lege church. A chime of bells of unsurpassed excel-
lence, placed in the tower by George Howe, Esq., of
Boston, whose own son, a graduate of Amherst, fell
a sacrifice to the war, answers the double purpose,
to use the language of President Stearns, of " throw-
ing out upon the breezes the sweet invitation of
Christian psalmody to worship on the Lord's day,
and of commemorating in patriotic and soothing
melodies, on appropriate occasions, the nobleness of
our sons and brothers who honored the college, while
they shed their blood for Christ and dear native
land."
Before any provision was made or expected for a
new church, the rooms in the old chapel building
had become so deformed and dilapidated that thor-
ough repairs were absolutely necessary. These re-
pairs were made gradually, under the superintend-
ence of W. A. Dickinson, Esq. They cost nearly as
much as the original building. But they gave us
s
Of THE
VERSITY
J
COLLEGE HALL.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 159
possession of rooms far surpassing the original ones
in convenience and elegance. The form of the
rooms underwent little or no change. But they were
entirely refitted, frescoed, and furnished, and the
recitation rooms, beginning with the Greek room,
and extending gradually to the others, being adorned
with maps and charts, photographs and engravings,
bronzes and marbles illustrative of Greek and Roman
art and antiquities, became teachers, no longer of
rudeness and slovenliness, but of order, truth, and
beauty. While the chapel proper was undergoing
repairs, the present Art room, in Williston Hall,
served as our place of worship.
When the village church had completed their new
and costly church edifice on Main Street in 1867, the
trustees purchased the old edifice in which they al-
ready owned a share, in consideration of its annual
use for commencements, thoroughly remodelled and
repaired it externally and internally, thus divesting
it in a great measure of its " astonishing" ugliness,
and so acquired College Hall, one of the most con-
venient and useful buildings on the college grounds.
While the college had thus been erecting or acquir-
ing these convenient and beautiful buildings, a cor-
responding improvement had been going vnparipassu
in the college grounds. Mr. Williston, Dr. Barrett,
Mr. Hayden, and others made donations for this pur-
pose. Appropriations were voted from time to time
from the college treasury. Early under the presi-
dency of Dr. Stearns, the ground south of the grove
was carefully prepared for cricket and base-ball.
The annexation of a part of the Boltwood farm, and
the grading about Walker Hall and the college
160 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
church, involved great changes in the college grounds
and became the occasion of the greatest improve-
ment that has been made in them, by providing new
drives and walks, furnishing more convenient access
and entrance, and opening to visitors more inviting
views of the buildings, with charming vistas of the
eastern hills in the background.
In 1868, Leavitt Hallock, Esq., having purchased,
together with the farm of which it was a part, the
grove formerly known as Baker's Grove, between
Pratt and Blake fields, and near which the students
for a time had a ball ground, and having adorned it
with drives and walks, gave it in trust to the college
on the single condition that the trustees should pre-
serve, improve, and keep it forever as a public park.
The trustees gratefully accepted the donation and
gave it the name of Hallock Park. It contains some
seven acres of ancient and venerable oaks and pines,
such as can scarcely be found anywhere else in
western Massachusetts.
If now we turn our attention to the departments of
instruction, we shall find that they kept even pace
with these improvements in the buildings and
grounds. During the presidency of Dr. Stearns, three
new departments were established, represented sev-
erally by the three then most recent buildings, viz. :
the department of hygiene and physical education,
by the Barrett Gymnasium ; that of mathematics and
astronomy by Walker Hall; and that of Biblical
history and interpretation and the pastoral care, by
the college church.
Physical education was a prominent topic in the
inaugural address of President Stearns. After in-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. l6l
sisting on the natural connection between bodily dis-
arrangement on the one hand and intellectual infe-
riority as well as moral perversity on the other, and
contrasting the perfection of physical form, health,
and strength developed by the palastra and the gym-
nasium in ancient systems of educationjtvith the par-
tial deformity, the languid step, stooping shoulders,
cadaverous countenances, and physical degeneracy
induced by neglect of bodily training in modern
times, he says : " Physical education is not the lead-
ing business of college life, though were I able, like
Alfred or Charlemagne, to plan an educational sys-
tem anew, I would seriously consider the expediency
of introducing regular drills in gymnastic and calis-
thenic exercises." The idea, thus early conceived
and expressed, grew in the president's mind with
every year's experience, till it became a new de-
partment. In each successive annual report to the
trustees he called their attention with increasing
earnestness to the failing health and waning strength
and in some instances the premature death of stu-
dents, especially in the spring of the year, as in his
opinion wholly unnecessary. In his report for 1859, /
he says : " If a moderate amount of physical exercise
could be secured as a general thing to every student
daily, I have a deep conviction, founded on close ob-
servation and experience, that not only would lives
and health be preserved, but animation and cheerful-
ness, and a higher order of efficient study and intel-
lectual life would be secured. It will be for the con-
sideration of this board, whether, for the encourage-
ment of this sort of exercise, the time has not come
when efficient measures should be taken for the erec-
162 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
tion of a gymnasium, and the procuring of its proper
appointments." The trustees accordingly chose a
committee, consisting of the president, Dr. Nathan
Allen, Henry Edwards, Esq., and Hon. Alexander H.
Bullock, who reported at once in favor of an immediate
effort for erecting a gymnasium. The building was
completed, as we have seen, in 1860. At the same
time, the trustees, at their annual meeting, in
August, 1860, voted to establish a department of
physical culture in the college, and elected John W.
Hooker, M.D., of New Haven, Conn., the first pro-
fessor in the department. Dr. Hooker was an excel-
lent gymnast and did much to inaugurate the new
system and inspire the students with interest in it.
But owing to ill-health and other causes his connec-
tion with the college ceased after a few months.
During the interregnum in the spring of 1861, taking
advantage of the excitement which preceded the war,
Col. Luke Lyman of Northampton was employed to
give instruction and training to students in military
tactics and exercises.
At the annual meeting of the trustees, in August,
1 86 1, Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Jr., a graduate of the
college, and of the Medical School of Harvard Uni-
versity, was appointed professor in this department.
And to his science, skill, patience, and rare tact in
managing students, under the wise and efficient
direction and cooperation of President Stearns, we
are indebted for the remarkable success in Amherst
College of a department which almost everywhere
else has proved a failure. The characteristic and
essential features to which it owes its success are
two: In the first place, the gymnasium is only part
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 163
"and parcel, or, if you please, the head and front, of a
department of anatomy, physiology, and physical
culture, which is committed to an educated physician
and man of science, who is specially charged with
the health of the students, as other professors are
charged with the several branches of mental educa-
tion. In the second place, unless excused by the
professor for special reasons, every student is re-
quired to exercise under the professor in the gymna-
sium half an hour daily for four days in the week,
just as much as he is required to attend the recita-
tions and lectures in any other department. One
other characteristic has contributed largely to the
popularity and success of Dr. Hitchcock's manage-
ment of gymnastic exercises. He knows how to in-
termingle recreation and amusement with the severer
drill of the gymnasium, maintaining military order
and discipline during a portion of each half-hour,
and then allowing them to break up into sections or
squads, and take such exercise and recreation as they
choose, so that the classes come to the gymnasium
with much of the same relish and zest with which
they go to the ball ground, and go through a part of
their exercises, as well as leave them, often with
laughter and shouts.
The attractiveness of the exercises in the gymna-
sium to the public was and still is seen in the num-
ber of visitors. "From September, 1866, to the
close of the college year in July, 1867, there were
present at these exercises five thousand nine hun-
dred and fifty-eight persons as visitors, and from
September, 1867, to July 10, 1868, the number was
four thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, more
164 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
than one-fourth of whom were ladies ; and the aver-
age number of visitors present at each exercise was
over ten for both years." l In his report for 1869-70,
the professor reckons the yearly average of visitors
as four thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.
It is probable that the number is still larger now.
The prize exhibitions, which occur once or twice a
year, always draw crowds of spectators.
In summing up the results of the experiment in
1869, Dr. Allen, to whose professional knowledge
and constant supervision as one of the trustees this
department owes more than to any one else, except
President Stearns and Professor Hitchcock, testifies
to a decided improvement in the countenances and
general physique of the students, in the use of their
limbs and physical movements generally, in their
cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits, in their sani-
tary condition and in their vital statistics, besides
many incidental advantages, such as elevating the
standard of scholarship, preventing vicious and
irregular habits, and aiding the government and dis-
cipline of the institution.
The department of mathematics and astronomy,
including the professorship, the instructorships and
the prize scholarships, was not only founded by Dr.
Walker, but shaped to meet his views, and carefully
defined in the terms and conditions of the several
endowments. The documents in which the founder
defines his views and wishes, and which constitute
the statutes of the foundation, are spread out at
1 See "Physical Culture in Amherst College," a pamphlet by
Dr. Nathan Allen, published at the request of the trustees,
1869.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 165
length on the records of the trustees, where they fill
twelve entire, closely written folio pages. The first
document which accompanied the endowment of the
Walker professorship of mathematics and astronomy
contains a minute description of the ends for
which, and the ways in which, in the opinion of the
founder, mathematics should be taught, under the
heads of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and trigo-
nometry.
In accordance with these views, William C. Esty,
of the class of '60, was chosen instructor in 1862,
and in 1863 professor of mathematics and astron-
omy. His trial for the professorship was the calcu-
lation of the orbits of the satellites of Jupiter a
work which had never before been done, and which
occupied him for two years. The examination was
by Professor Pierce, of Harvard College, by whom
also the subject had been assigned or rather sug-
gested for the choice of Mr. Esty.
The Walker instructorship was founded in 1863.
It provides for the appointment by the trustees of
some recent graduate of superior scholarship and
promise, as a special instructor or tutor, to give in-
struction to select divisions of the sophomore and
freshman classes. The characteristic features of
this foundation are: i. Small divisions, each consist-
ing of not more than ten or twelve students; 2. No
instructor to be employed longer than three years,
but another to be chosen to take his place from those
graduates who have availed themselves of the bene-
fits of this provision and are esteemed by the trus-
tees of the college as most deserving.
The same year in which the funds were given for
\UNIVERSITY,
OF
l66 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the College Church, 1864, another gentleman, without
any knowledge of that donation, offered to the trus-
tees, in a letter to the president, the sum of twenty
thousand dollars as a foundation for a professorship
of the pastoral care. The same gentleman had pre-
viously had some correspondence with Dr. Hitch-
cock as well as with Dr. Stearns on the same subject.
At their annual meeting in July, 1864, the trustees
gratefully accepted the foundation and appointed the
president and Dr. Vaill a committee to confer with
the donor, and prepare proper statutes and plans for
the pastorate. At a special meeting of the board in
November, 1866, the statutes, as approved by the
donor, were reported and adopted by the trustees.
They provide that the professor shall be designated
as the " Samuel Green Professor of Biblical History
and Interpretation and of the Pastoral Care," and
that he shall be the pastor or associate pastor of the
college church. His duties shall be to preach on
the Sabbath such portion of the time as the trustees
may think most conducive to the well-being of the
college; to be responsible in connection with and
under the direction of the president for the proper
conducting of all other religious meetings in the col-
lege, provided, however, that in the management of
this work as well as in the preaching on the Sabbath,
such assistance may be expected from other profes-
sors as shall help to secure the wisest and most pow-
erful Christian influence upon the whole institution ;
to organize and conduct, or superintend the conduct-
ing of, Bible classes; to seek out young men as they
come to college, and exert a personal religious influ-
ence of Christian friendship upon them ; and to give
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. l6/
such instruction in Biblical history and interpreta-
tion as the trustees may direct.
During his life, the founder of this professorship
was not willing to have his name mentioned. But
since his decease there is no objection to the an-
nouncement that the founder was that life-long
friend of Amherst College and of every good cause,
John Tappan, Esq., of Boston. And he named
the foundation the Samuel Green Professorship
in memory of his beloved pastor, the first pastor
of the Union Church, Essex Street, Boston,
and afterwards one of the honored secretaries
of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions.
While jiew departments of instruction were thus
springing up in the college, the old departments
were not stationary. All the branches of the physi-
cal sciences were not only supported now on the
Walker foundations, but derived fresh life and
strength from the new and rich soil into which they
were transplanted.
In 1869, the trustees voted that Professor Snell
have liberty to draw on the Walker Legacy Fund for
an amount not exceeding three thousand dollars, to
be expended within two years for the purchase of
apparatus. Thus after many long years of hope
deferred and personal toil and skill to make appar-
atus out of nothing, and with no place to put it in
when it was made, he enjoyed the satisfaction, not
only of having a beautiful and convenient room with
suitable shelves and cases for the deposit of the old
apparatus, -but also of seeing new and choice instru-
ments, works of art as well as illustrations of sci-
12
168 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ence, frequently arriving wherewith to exhibit his
new and beautiful experiments.
The department of chemistry, like the department
of mathematics and physics, migrated during the
presidency of Dr. Stearns, leaving the basement of
the old Chapel, which in 1827 seemed so ample and
magnificent and was in fact in advance of the labor-
atories in other and older colleges, and finding new
quarters on the first floor of Williston Hall, fitted
and furnished by the wealth and liberality of Mr.
Williston, to satisfy the demands of Professor Clark,
young, ambitious, and fresh from the laboratories of
Europe. Provided with an excellent working as
well as lecturing laboratory, conducted by scientific
and enthusiastic professors, with the cooperation
sometimes of able assistants and the constant sym-
pathy of an appreciating and progressive president,
this department expanded with its accommodations
and appliances, was allowed more time and oppor-
tunity under the presidency of Dr. Stearns than was
afforded it even under his scientific predecessor,
gave increasing attention to analytic and organic
chemistry and work in the laboratory, and, in short,
endeavored not without success to keep pace with
the rapid progress of chemistry and the kindred sci-
ences. From 1854 to 1856 Professor Clark was
aided in analytic and applied chemistry by the rare
talents, taste, and science of Dr. John W. Mallet, a
graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and of the Uni-
versity of Gottingen. Dr. Newton S. Manross,
another of Mr. Clark's fellow-students in Professor
Wohler's laboratory at Gottingen and a doctor of
philosophy of that university, gave excellent instruc-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 169
tion here in this and the related sciences in 1861-62,
the first year in which Professor Clark was absent as
an officer in the War of the Rebellion, and, following
his beloved professor to the war, lost his life in the
battle at Antietam. In 1867 Professor Clark re-
signed his professorship in order to accept the presi-
dency of the Massachusetts Agricultural College,
and after a year's interregnum, in which Mr. J. H.
Eaton, of the class of '65, lectured with marked suc-
cess, in 1868 Prof. E. P. Harris of the class of
'55, then professor at Beloit College, was appointed
in his place. In 1869, this department, at the same
time with that of physics, struck its roots into the
Walker Legacy Fund, and Professor Harris was
authorized, with the advice and approbation of the
prudential committee, to expend a sum not exceed-
ing fifteen hundred dollars in refitting and refur-
nishing the laboratory. And thereafter not only
whole classes were faithfully instructed in the gen-
eral principles of the science by his able lectures,
but under his inspiring guidance the laboratory
proper has been filled to its utmost capacity with
enthusiastic elective students engaged in analytic
experiments.
Botany has continued to be taught, as in former
years, by the professor of chemistry. Indeed Pro-
fessor Clark bore the title of " Professor of Chemis-
try, Botany, and Zoology" from 1854 till 1858. In
1858, Professor Tuckerman was appointed professor
of botany. Only a few classes, however, enjoyed his
instructions in this science, in consequence of an in-
creasing difficulty of hearing, which rendered it in-
convenient and disagreeable for him to teach classes.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
For the same reason, however, he only devoted him-
self with less interruption and more enthusiasm to
one branch of botanical science, viz., the lichens, in
which he long reigned almost sole monarch among
American savants and published to the world the
results of his long and patient microscopic studies of
specimens which he gathered in person or by proxy
from all the mountains and glens of the western con-
tinent. "Tuckerman Glen" in the White Mountains
was discovered by him in these explorations, and
will be a lasting monument of his devotion to this
science.
On retiring from the presidency, Dr. Hitchcock
expressed to the trustees his willingness to retain
the professorship of natural theology and geology,
giving at least twenty lectures, and from twenty-five
to thirty recitations in geology ; twenty-five lectures
and ten or twelve recitations in anatomy and physi-
ology; twenty-five recitations in Butler's Analogy;
and from ten to twenty lectures in natural theology ;
being released from the government and police of
the college and from attending faculty meetings;
preaching and officiating at prayers in his turn with
the other professors; and receiving as his salary six
hundred dollars one-half the sum received by the
other professors. This proposition was thankfully
accepted by the trustees, and Professor Hitchcock
returned with the freshness of a first love to his
lectures and recitations, to geological excursions, ex-
plorations, and naming of mountains, to the collec-
tion and classification of specimens and the devel-
opment and perfection especially of his favorite
branches, ichnology and natural theology. It was
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. i;i
with enthusiastic delight that he saw the Appleton
Cabinet completed, and the first floor filled with
classified and labeled foot-marks in which the eye
of his science and imagination could see the gigantic
birds, saurians, and batrachians of the primeval
world marching down the geologic ages, and the
second floor filling with shells of mollusks, casts of
the megatherium, skeletons and skins of the gorilla
and other animals, and stuffed or preserved speci-
mens of the animal creation in regular gradation
from the lowest to the highest orders of the animal
kingdom. In 1858, Mr. Charles H. Hitchcock, of
the class of '56, was appointed lecturer on zoology
and curator of the cabinet. In 1860, as Dr. Hitch-
cock's health declined, an addition was made to his
salary that he might employ such assistance as he
might think needful and expedient, and from that
time, his son relieved him by performing more and
more of his duties until his death in 1864. In 1870
Mr. Benjamin K. Emerson, a graduate of the class
of '65 and a doctor of philosophy of the University
of Gottingen, was appointed instructor in geology,
and at a meeting of the trustees in Boston, Febru-
ary 7, 1872, the title of the Hitchcock Professorship
was changed from that of Geology and Natural The-
ology to that of Geology and Zoology; and Benja-
min K. Emerson was elected to the professorship.
Meanwhile natural theology was provided for by
ample instructions from the president and the pro-
fessor of mental and moral philosoph) r , as well as by
the able and popular lectures of Dr. Burr on this
special subject.
Mathematics and the ancient languages have both
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
been compelled to yield, these last few years, to the
demands of the age and give tip some of the time
which they formerly occupied to the physical sci-
ences and the modern languages. Yet there never
has been a time when the major part of each succes-
sive class has been more enthusiastic and successful
as students of the classics, nor when we have been
able to make a few so good classical scholars. While
insisting as strenuously as ever on a thorough drill
and mastery of the grammar and lexicography of the
languages by the freshmen, we have been able, with
the admirable helps that now exist, to study both
ancient and modern languages more in the light of
comparative philology, and at the same time to read
the classics more in their relations to history and
philosophy and as a means of higher culture in what
are justly called "the humanities/'
Two changes have been introduced which affect
especially this department, and which, without ques-
tion, have been both marks and means of progress.
They were introduced by the Greek professor. The
one is the introduction into the recitation rooms, not
only of maps and charts, but of photographs, engrav-
ings, casts, models of ancient edifices, copies of an-
cient statuary in marble, bronze, and terra cotta,
busts of authors and the great men of antiquity in
short, all such sensible illustrations as will lend to
classical studies something of the reality and vivid-
ness which specimens and experiments give to the
physical sciences, and will help students to repro-
duce men and things as they were in olden times.
The other sign and means of progress is a higher
grade of instruction in the lower classes secured by
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 173
more permanence and more division of labor among
the instructors of those classes. Formerly in this as
in other colleges, the two lower classes were taught
almost entirely by tutors. For many years now the
instruction in Greek and Latin has all been given by
professors.
Subject to change as other departments, the de-
partment of rhetoric had three different incumbents
during the presidency of Dr. Stearns. Rev. Thomas
P. Field, of the class of '34, was chosen professor in
this department at a special meeting of the trustees
held in Amherst, November 21, 1853, just a year pre-
vious to the ordination and inauguration of Presi-
dent Stearns, and in the spring of 1856 he resigned
the professorship, having held it only a little over
two years. His rare good sense and genial spirit,
his refinement of taste and manners, his extensive
and thorough acquaintance with English literature
and his high and just appreciation of the old English
classics, qualified him well for a professorship in col-
lege, and especially for the professorship of rhetoric
and English literature.
Mr. James G. Vose, a graduate of Yale of the
class of '51, was chosen professor in this department
at the annual meeting of the trustees in August,
1856, and his resignation was accepted by the board
at a special meeting in Boston in March, 1865.
With many of the same qualifications for the office
as his predecessor, and continuing to hold it between
eight and nine years longer than any who had pre-
ceded him except Professor Worcester and Professor
Warner Professor Vose grew every year in the re-
spect and affection of the students, endeared himself
174 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
greatly to his colleagues in the faculty, and was im-
pressing himself more and more on the style of
thinking and writing in the college. No one can
look carefully and discriminately over the schedules
of Commencements and exhibitions without seeing
his influence in the choice of subjects and the ex-
pression of the titles of the pieces while he occupied
this important chair. Ordained as an evangelist not
long after he became professor, 1 by a council con-
vened by invitation of the college church, he
preached with increasing frequency and interest in
other churches, and feeling more and more the infe-
licities of college life and the attractions of the min-
istry and the pastoral office, he yielded at length to
this growing preference, and the college lost a good
professor, but Providence and Rhode Island gained
perhaps a better bishop whose wisdom and spirit and
influence in the churches prove him to be in the true
apostolical succession.
At the same special meeting in Boston, March 8,
1865, at which they accepted the resignation of Pro-
fessor Vose, the trustees " made unanimous choice of
Rev. L. Clark Seelye as Williston Professor of
Rhetoric," whereby Springfield lost a Congrega-
tional bishop greatly honored and beloved, but the
college gained a professor of rhetoric and oratory and
English literature who, although he came with the
avowed expectation of staying only a few years and
then resuming the ministry, proved himself more
and more the right man in the right place, until in
1873, he accepted a place for which he was perhaps
1 He was ordained in 1857. He had previously preached
only as a licentiate.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 1 75
still better adapted, the presidency of Smith College
in Northampton.
With the trifling exception of a choice between
French and German in the third term of sophomore
year, there were no optional studies prior to the
presidency of Dr. Stearns. In 1859-60, "annuals"
having now taken the place of the " senior examin-
ation" on the whole course, " elective studies in the
several departments" took the place of reviews pre-
paratory to that examination in the third term of
senior year. Since that time they have been intro-
duced gradually into the studies of the junior year.
They are still confined for the most part to the last
two years of the course. There is no disposition in
any of the present faculty to make the college an
American university (sit venia verbo!) or to sacrifice
any of the humanities or the disciplinary studies
which constitute the essential characteristics of the
American college.
Conservative and at the same time progressive in
his ideas of the college curriculum, President Stearns
presided in the Board of Trustees and the faculty
and administered the government of the institution
with the same even balance, uniting dignity with
unfailing courtesy and kindness, tempering justice
and firmness with gentleness and parental love, calm
however stormy the elements might be around him,
yet alive to every breath of feeling, impulse, or as-
piration in young men, ruling in the hearts of all
connected with the college, and guiding its affairs
with a wisdom that seldom erred, and a patience and
faith that never failed.
As "Professor of Moral and Christian Science,"
176 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
President Stearns, during the greater part of his
presidency, taught the senior class Butler's Anal-
ogy, and lectured on the Hebrew theocracy and its
records, with particular reference to the arguments
and objections of modern skeptics. Having become
professor also of Biblical history and interpretation,
he adopted a more modern text-book, and by way of
supplementing its defects and imperfections, ex-
tended the range of his oral and written lectures.
For a few years, he also instructed the seniors in
constitutional law. With this exception, his teach-
ing was confined to a single term the second term
of the senior year. This is less instruction than was
given by any of his predecessors very much less
than used to be given by President Moore and Presi-
dent Humphrey, or any of the earlier presidents of
New England colleges. But we have only to look
at the other work which he did in raising funds and
erecting buildings, in administering the discipline,
and looking after the necessities of poor students,
in the pastoral care and the representation of the
college before the public in all the countless and
endless details of business that now devolve on the
president of any great and growing college and we
see not only a justification of this undesirable fact,
but a necessity for it. And in the success and per-
fection, with which all this work was done ; in the
rare felicity, free from outbreaks and almost from
friction, with which the internal government and
discipline (never before so fully conducted by the
president and never before conducted so well) was
administered ; in the steadily increasing number of
students (since the war) till it had reached at the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 177
semi-centennial a larger aggregate than at any for-
mer period ; and in the general growth, prosperity,
and reputation of the institution in all these we
see a proof of the wisdom and excellence of the ad-
ministration.
On Thursday, June 8, 1876, Dr. Stearns died, still
in office (the only president of Amherst College that
has died in office except the first), having held the
office a greater number of years than any other ex-
cept the second, who was president about the same
length of time. 1 The closing scenes of his life are
narrated in the following extracts from the com-
memorative discourse by the author of this history.
The last year was doubtless the most fruitful year
of his long and useful life. The last spring term
saw his prayers answered and his labors blessed in
what he considered, and we also felt, to be the great-
est and best of all the revivals that had crowned his
college work, if not the greatest and best in the whole
history of the college. The last Sunday that he
officiated and at the last sacrament which he admin-
istered, he received to the communion the largest
number of young men that he had ever admitted at
one time to the college church, the richest harvest
of new-born souls that he had gathered into the
garner of the Lord. The last time that he met the
students was at morning prayers where he had so
often interceded for them with their Heavenly
Father, like Abraham, the friend of God, like Is-
rael, the prince of God, and in much of the spirit as
1 Dr. Moore was president a little over two years ; Dr. Hum-
phrey, twenty-two; Dr. Hitchcock, nine; Dr. Stearns, twenty-
two; Dr. Seelye, fourteen.
1 78 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
well as in the name and for the sake of the Son of
God Himself. This time, however, as he rose to
offer prayer he grew faint and fell into the arms of
his colleagues, but soon recovering, he walked to
his home, supported on either side by some of the
students. His family felt no immediate alarm.
His friends who called in the course of the day saw
no signs of speedy death. He kept about the house
through the day, suffering some pretty sharp pains
at times in his back and shoulders, but talking with
his usual cheerfulness and playfulness, listening to
the reading of a book, reading himself in the news-
paper, and apparently apprehending no immediate
danger. He was walking about the room five min-
utes before his death ; he had just taken up a news-
paper when suddenly he laid it down, remarking that
he felt a strange sinking, dropped upon the sofa,
and before the family could gather about him, he
was gone. He had lived so near the heavenly gates
it is no wonder that at a single step he entered and
was with the shining ones. It was an ideal death to
crown an almost ideal life. All who knew him
could but exclaim, "Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his." He
himself had often expressed a wish, if agreeable to
the will of God, thus to die. It was not a death, it
was only a departure from the line of battle to the
trophy, from the contest to the crown. Nay, call
it rather a translation. He walked with God and
was not, for God took him. Nothing else was
wanted to round out to the full so beautiful, useful,
honored, and happy a life. True, he had other
thoughts and plans. He had written his resignation
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 179
of the presidency it was to be contemporaneous
with the graduation of his youngest son and he was
to retain for the present the pastorate and the Sam-
uel Green professorship of Biblical interpretation.
But he had lived more than his three-score years
and ten and filled them full with sound and heroic
service, and the Master gave him a full and free dis-
charge, bidding him rest from his labors and enter
at once upon his honors and rewards, saying with
almost audible voice:
"Servant of God, well done !
Rest from thy loved employ ;
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."
On Tuesday of the next week the funeral service
was held in the College Church. Only one week
from the next Sabbath was the beginning of Com-
mencement week. With characteristic promptness
and yet may we not believe by a special provi-
dence? he had finished the preparation of his bacca-
laureate sermon on his birthday, the lyth of March,
and presented it to Mrs. Stearns as a surprise gift
and birthday present. At the request of the faculty
and family this was read by President Seelye of
Smith College. The text was in Deut. xxviii. i,
15. It was a centennial discourse (1876) and a
strong appeal addressed to the reason, the con-
sciences, and the hearts of the young men, espe-
cially the graduating class, and urging them with
more than usual fervor and power to the faithful
discharge of their civil, social, and political, as well
as religious, duties. Eloquent and impressive in
itself, under these circumstances it was a voice from
180 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the grave and the spirit world, nay, a voice from
heaven and God, which those who heard it, and es-
pecially the members of the graduating class, will
never forget. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
in the afternoon of the same day, when the graduat-
ing class commune with their pastor, with each
other, and with their Christian brothers for the last
time, was a season of rare sacredness and solemnity
and made still more interesting by the admission to
the church of converts of the recent revival. Com-
mencement week seemed more like a prolonged fu-
neral than like the usual festival. The president's
chair stood vacant and wreathed in mourning; a
dirge introduced the exercises, and oh, how we
missed his voice in the opening and closing prayers,
his presence in all the exercises! The richest
legacy which he has left to his family, the college,
and the community, is his character and life a char-
acter which was confessed by all who knew him to
be a more convincing argument for Christianity than
whole volumes of " evidences," a life which was felt
by all who saw it to be more winning and persua-
sive than the most eloquent sermon, and a mem-
ory at once more precious and more imperishable
than foundations or buildings of marble and granite.
Amherst College will be rich and sure to accomplish
its mission so long as men like President Stearns
and Professor Snell continue to be its presidents and
professors, and so long as trustees, faculty, and stu-
dents cherish their memory and feel, as they cannot
but feel, their hallowed influence.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CIVIL WAR RECORD OF AMHERST'S HEROES THE
COMMEMORATIVE CHIME OF BELLS THE SEMI-CEN-
TENNIAL CELEBRATION.
Two events of peculiar interest and importance,
for which we have found no place in the foregoing
pages, belong to the history of President Stearns 's
administration, namely, the Civil War and the Semi-
centennial Celebration. To these we must now de-
vote a short chapter before proceeding to the subse-
quent history.
No class of men, as statistics prove, contributed to
the grand army which saved the Union and the na-
tion in the Civil War in so large proportion to their
numbers, and none contributed an element of such
military value and moral power, as the graduates
and under-graduates of our colleges. Several of
the colleges in the Middle and Western States were
closed for a longer or shorter period during the war;
and the Eastern colleges felt scarcely less the deple-
tion of their numbers and the diminution of their
strength. It is sufficient honor for Amherst not to
have fallen behind her sisters in devotion to the
cause it is her pride and glory to have borne her
full share in the burdens and sacrifices, if not in the
honors and rewards, of this patriotic and heroic ser-
vice.
181
1 82 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
At the first outbreak of hostilities, before the war
had actually commenced, with the ardor characteris-
tic of youth and college life, the under-graduates of
Amherst volunteered their services and offered a
company to the governor. On that dark and porten-
tous Sunday in April, 1861, which followed the fall
of Fort Sumter, and the attack of the mob upon the
Massachusetts regiments passing through Baltimore
on their way to Washington, when other troops from
Massachusetts and New York, forbidden to pass by
that thoroughfare, were making their way slowly by
way of Annapolis, and when it was feared that the
rebels might already have seized upon the capital,
the writer of this history preached in the College
Chapel on themes suited to the circumstances, and
in a strain intended to inspire courage, heroism, and
self-sacrificing devotion. And while the professor
was preaching, or at least as soon as he had done,
the students were already practising what he
preached. They drew up a form of enlistment which
some fifty or sixty of them subscribed, and in which
they offered themselves to the military service of the
country in this emergency, deeming it a Christian
duty not unbecoming the Lord's day to enlist in
such a war, and adopting as their own the sentiment
which they so much admired in their ancient clas-
sics: Duke et decorum est pro f atria mori. The presi-
dent's son was the first to put his name to this paper;
a son of one of the professors was the next to enter
the lists. The governor declined to accept the prof-
fered service, at the same time intimating that the
day might come when duty would call them to the
sacrifice. The immediate peril soon passed by, and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 183
a general military drill tinder a competent military
officer ' took the place of the proposed company of
volunteers. But both the young men specially
alluded to above afterwards enlisted, and one of
them was among the earliest sacrifices which our
college offered on the altar of the country. Many
of the other volunteers, I know not just how many,
found their way into the army, some before and
some after their graduation. Seventy-eight names
are recorded on the roll of under-graduates who
served in the army or navy of the United States in
the course of the war. Our classes, which had been
steadily increasing in numbers for several years,
were now so reduced that some of them seemed al-
most like the thinned ranks of an army after a battle.
One of the professors set the example of volunteering
early in the war, and it was followed by one other
officer of the college and by many of the students.
Prof. William S. Clark, commissioned as major of
the Twenty-first Regiment of Massachusetts Volun-
teers, August 21, 1 86 1, and promoted rapidly to the
rank of lieutenant-colonel and colonel, fought in most
of the principal battles of the first two years of the
war till his regiment was reduced to the merest skele-
ton. His friend, Dr. N. S. Manross, who for one
year filled the vacancy in the faculty occasioned by
his absence, at the end of the year followed him to the
war, and at the very opening of his first battle, the
battle of Antietam, he fell as he was leading on his
company to the conflict. Thus two of the officers of
college went directly from the chair of the professor
'Col. Luke Lyman, of Northampton, afterwards colonel
of the Twenty-seventh Regiment.
Of THE
1 84 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
to the tent and the field of battle. Two other mem-
bers of the faculty were represented in the army by
sons who were also sons of the college. Three sons
of the lamented Professor Adams enlisted, two of
whom early lost their lives in the service. Add to
these connecting links the almost four-score students
who left their classes, most of them for the purpose
of entering the army, and many more who engaged
in the service immediately after their graduation,
and it will be readily seen how many bonds of sym-
pathy and interest were thus established between the
college and the camps and battle-fields during the
war. Every mail was expected with anxious inter-
est. The newspapers were watched, especially after
every battle, and the lists of the killed and wounded
were examined with trembling solicitude. In some
instances false alarms were thus communicated, occa-
sioning much distress or anxiety at the time, but
followed by speedy relief, and attended perhaps with
not a little amusement. Colonel Clark was reported
first as captured and then as killed in the battle of
Chantilly. A telegraphic dispatch was even sent to
the army giving directions for sending on his body.
But the colonel soon answered it himself, saying that
he still had need of it for his own use, and a few
days later he presented himself in person at the door
of one of the professors with whom Mrs. Clark was
passing a few days, and ringing the bell, inquired if
the Widow Clark was there ! l
1 Colonel Clark denied having returned this answer, I be-
lieve. But he would have been very likely to return such an
answer ; if not true to the letter, it bears internal evidence of
'verisimilitude.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 185
Sometimes the sad intelligence, conveyed by
newspaper, letter, or telegraph conveyed perhaps
through the medium of a friend and broken as kindly
and tenderly as possible to the afflicted individual or
the bereaved family was too soon confirmed by the
arrival of the lifeless body. Then followed the
funeral service, the great congregation in the chapel
or the church, the prayers and dirges, the address or
commemorative discourse, and the long procession
of students and citizens, mourners all, to the place
of burial. Amherst was witness to not a few such
scenes in the course of the war.
The " Roll of the Graduates and Under-Graduates
of Amherst College who served in the Army or Navy
of the United States during the War of the Rebel-
lion," printed in 1871, records the names and in brief
the services of two hundred and forty-seven men, of
whom seventy-eight were under-graduates and one
hundred and sixty-nine were graduates. When the
semi-centennial catalogue was issued in 1872, the
number of graduates, then more fully ascertained,
had grown to one hundred and ninety-five. Among
these were six former tutors of the college. Two of
these sacrificed their lives in the service. 1 Of the
two hundred and forty-seven names on the roll,
ninety-five, or nearly thirty-nine per cent of the
whole, enlisted as privates. Some of them were im-
mediately elected to some office and received com-
missions. The greater part of the others were pro-
1 Dr. Charles Ellery Washburn of the class of '38, tutor in
1841 and 1842 ; and Rev. Samuel Fisk of the class of '48, tutor
from 1852 to 1855, author of "Dunn Brown Abroad," and
" Dunn Brown in the Army. "
1 86 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
moted to one grade or another, and generally to
successive grades, as the reward of meritorious con-
duct or faithful service. Amherst furnished in all
thirty-five chaplains, some of whom were pastors of
some of the largest and best churches in the city or
the country, and not a few sacrificed their health and
periled their lives in the service.
The college furnished thirty or more surgeons to
the war.
Passing from chaplains and surgeons to other
officers, we find on inspecting the roll and noting
their rank at the close of their service, three briga-
dier-generals (two of them major-generals by brevet),
nine colonels, twelve lieutenant-colonels, nine majors,
twenty-five captains, seventeen first lieutenants, sev-
enteen second lieutenants, nineteen sergeants, five
corporals, besides a few ensigns, color-bearers, and
several adjutants, quartermasters and paymasters of
different ranks. Not a very brilliant show of supe-
rior officers in comparison with some of the less
clerical colleges of the East, or some of the more
belligerent institutions of the West, but showing a
proportionate number of promotions far beyond the
average among soldiers drawn from the community
generally, and thus illustrating forcibly the value of
the higher education in the military service. Never
before nor since, not even in the Prussian army in
the late Franco-German war, were there so many
bayonets that could read, and so many shoulder-straps
that could think, as there were in the army of the
United States that put down the great rebellion; and
to this element of intellectual and moral power no
other communities contributed so largely as the col-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. l8/
leges, and among the colleges none more than Am-
herst.
Thirteen of our soldiers were confined in rebel
prisons, some of them dragged in succession through
two, three, or four of those places of more than fiend-
ish torture, and two of them welcomed death as a
blessed deliverance from the starvation, insults, and
cruelties, worse than death, to which such prisoners
were subjected.
The classes that graduated soon after the opening
of the war, as might have been expected, furnished
the largest number of recruits for the service. In
this respect '62 is the banner class, thirty of its
members having gone to the war; '61 and '63 each
sent twenty-three; '64 furnished fifteen; and '65
twenty-one for the service. The class of '65 lost the
largest number; six of its members died in the ser-
vice, four of whom died of mortal wounds received
on the field of battle; '63 lost four men, three of
whom were killed in battle; '64 lost the same num-
ber. The other classes above named lost one or two
men each upon an average.
The graduates of the older classes were, of course,
all above the military age, and could not be expected
to furnish many soldiers. But not a few of them, as
we learn from our correspondence, made up for the
deficiency by sending their sons to the service. The
oldest graduate whose name appears on our roll was
Rev. Timothy Robinson Cressey of the class of '28,
who went himself as chaplain of the Second Regi-
ment of Minnesota Volunteers, and took with him
five sons into the service.
" In all," he writes, " we served fifteen years in the
1 88 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
war, were in twenty different battles, and all returned
in safety without the loss of a life or a limb. All
still live, and four of us are preaching Christ crucified,
in four different States, Minnesota, Michigan, Illi-
nois, and Iowa."
Rev. William A. Hyde of the next class ('29)
writes : " I had four sons in the war two of them in
nearly all the war. One of them suffered 4 deaths
oft' in rebel prisons for about ten months. He saw
Libby, Danville, Andersonville, and Florence in that
time."
Rev. Benjamin Schneider, D.D., of the next class
('30), the veteran missionary at Aintab in Western
Turkey, and the venerable father and bishop of all
the Protestant churches in that section, had three
sons and a son-in-law in different stages of educa-
tion in this country, one of them, William Tyler
Schneider, a member of Amherst College, all of
whom went to the war, three in the army and one in
the navy; and his oldest son, James, a young man of
rare promise who was preparing to rejoin his father
in the missionary work, and who entered the army
in the spirit of a missionary, lost his life in the service.
The names of all under-graduates who lost their
lives in the service were, by vote of the trustees,
enrolled among the graduates of their respective
classes. Special favor and indulgence were extended
freely, when asked, to all under-graduates who served
in the army, and returned to college.
Through the wisdom of President Stearns and the
liberality of his friend, the late George Howe, Esq.,
of Boston, the college rejoices in a monument such
as exists nowhere else to commemorate the fallen
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 189
heroes of the war, viz., a memorial chime of bells
placed in the tower of the College Church, which
began to give forth their music at the Semi-Centen-
nial Celebration, and which, in all coming time,
while they fitly introduce the services of the Sabbath
and accompany the exercises of our literary festivals,
and grace all occasions of special interest, will always
be associated with the heroic lives and martyr-like
deaths of our brave soldiers, and, by perpetuating
their memories, stimulate future generations of stu-
dents to follow their example. Among the fallen
whose memory will thus be perpetuated is a son of
the liberal donor, Sidney Walker Howe, of the class
of '59, who was killed in the battle of Williamsburg,
May 5, 1862, only a few months after he entered the
service. The gun captured in the battle of New-
bern, and bearing the names of those who fell in that
battle, stands in the vestibule of the Art Museum.
Thus coming generations will be reminded of the
virtues and sacrifices of our brethren who lost their
lives in the War of the Great Rebellion. And so
long as a single classmate or college-mate shall sur-
vive, we will enshrine him in the memory of our
hearts. And often as we meet at our annual re-
unions and call the rolls of our respective classes,
when their names are called, their surviving class-
mates will respond for them : " Dead on the field of
battle"" Died for their fatherland."
The war closed in 1865, leaving the college sadly
depleted in numbers, and with many mourners. But
in the years immediately following under the care
of President Stearns new life came to take the place
of that which was lost, the classes gradually filled up,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
and the happy prosperity of former times was re-
newed and increased, as we have described in the
preceding chapter concerning President Stearns's
administration.
One event of importance, however, immediately
following the sixties remains to be named the Semi-
centennial Celebration.
The alumni and friends of a college whose founda-
tions were laid in a religious faith and consecration
so nearly akin to those of the patriarchs and proph-
ets of olden times might well keep the fiftieth anni-
versary of its opening as a "jubilee."
The first steps towards associated action were taken
by Prof. Roswell D. Hitchcock of New York city.
He brought the subject before the alumni at their
annual meeting, July 8, 1868, and at his motion the
following resolutions were adopted :
" Whereas our Alma Mater in three years from
now will have completed her first half-century;
therefore
" Resolved, That the trustees of the college be re-
quested to make provision for the celebration of that
event.
"Resolved, That Prof. William S. Tyler, D.D., be
requested to prepare a history of Amherst College,
which shall be ready for delivery at Commencement,
1871, and that he be requested also to address the
alumni on that occasion.
" Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed
to confer with the trustees and with Professor Tyler,
and to act as a committee of arrangements for our
approaching semi-centennial."
In accordance with this last resolution, Prof. R.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. igi
D. Hitchcock, W. A. Dickinson, Esq., and Prof.
R. H. Mather were appointed such a committee, to
whom, at the annual meeting of the alumni, July 13,
1870, Professors Edward Hitchcock and J. H. Seelye
were added.
At the annual meeting of the board, July 9, 1868,
the foregoing action was approved by the trustees,
and the prudential committee was authorized to
confer with the committee of the alumni.
At the annual meeting of the trustees, July 13,
1870, a special committee, censisting of the president
and Doctors Paine, Sabin, and Storrs, was appointed
to make arrangements, conjointly with the committee
of the alumni, for the celebration of the jubilee of
the college in 1871.
There was some discussion and some difference of
opinion among the alumni and friends of the college
as to the proper time for the celebration. As the
first Commencement was held in 1822, the Com-
mencement in 1871 would be not the fiftieth but the
forty-ninth anniversary of that day, and it seemed to
some, at first thought, that the celebration should
be at the fiftieth Commencement, which would be in
1872. But it was the opening of the college to re-
ceive students, and not its first Commencement, which
its friends desired to celebrate, and as it was agreed
that Commencement week would be the most suitable
and convenient time for the celebration, the conclu-
sion was quite unanimously reached that the Com-
mencement of 1871, although it would occur some
two months earlier than the exact anniversary of the
opening, should be the time.
Not a few of the alumni reached Amherst the Sat-
192 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
urday previous to Commencement, and remained till
Friday or Saturday of the next week, that they might
have time to recall old recollections and keep a week
of jubilee. The exercises of the week were opened
as usual on Sunday by the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper in the Chapel in the morning, and the bacca-
laureate sermon in College Hall in the afternoon.
President Stearns very appropriately took for the
text of his baccalaureate, Leviticus xxv. 10, "Thou
shalt hallow the fiftieth year," and discoursed on the
religious history and characteristics of the college,
paying at the same time a feeling and generous
tribute to the men, especially the members of the
faculty, who, through poverty and reproach, had
stood by it in its dark and trying hour.
Monday and Tuesday were devoted as usual to the
prize exhibitions and declamations, and to the ex-
ercises of Class-day, the out-of doo'r performances of
the latter, however, being nearly drowned out by
copious showers which were to purify the air for the
next day.
Wednesday from early morning to a late hour in
the evening was given up to the jubilee. The day
dawned auspiciously, and continued clear and bright,
yet cool and comfortable even to its close. It seemed
made it doubtless was made for the occasion. In
the exercises of the morning, Hon. Samuel Williston,
the generous benefactor of the college, fitly presided.
The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. E. P.
Humphrey, D.D., of Louisville, Ky., of the class of
'28, and the eldest son of the second president. The
assembly then joined in singing the doxology,
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,"
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 193
after which followed the address of welcome by Presi-
dent Stearns, and the historical discourse by Professor
Tyler.
In the afternoon, Hon. A. H. Bullock of the class
of '36, presided, and addresses were' made by the
presiding officer, by Professor Snell, '22, Dr. Edward
P. Humphrey, '28, Rev. H. N. Barnum, 1 '52, Rev.
H. W. Beecher, '34, Prof. E. A. Park, Prof. R. D.
Hitchcock, '36, and Waldo Hutchins, Esq., '42.
The addresses, both of the forenoon and afternoon,
besides being printed in full at the time in The
Springfield Republican, have been published in the form
of a pamphlet, and, having been sent to the alumni
generally, have doubtless been read by most of thQ
readers of this history. It is therefore quite unnec-
essary that they should be made the subject of analy-
sis or remark. A letter from Dr. R. S. Storrs, of the
class of '39, which was read by Henry Ward Beecher,
is also contained in this pamphlet, together with the
addresses of Prof. H. B. Hackett, '30, Bishop Hunt-
ington, '39, Hon. H. S. Stockbridge, '45, Willard
Merrill, Esq., '54, and George C. Clarke, Esq., '58,
which were not delivered for lack of time.
The exercises were held beneath a spacious tent
which was spread under the shadow of the trees in
the grove where the students of Amherst, through
all their generations, have found exercise and recrea-
tion, have walked and talked, have sat and conversed
or meditated, and where every object that met the
eye, whether in the grove or on the grounds, or in
the distance, called up old memories, revived hal-
lowed associations, and spoke with scarcely less power
1 Of the Turkish Mission.
194 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
than the speakers, to their minds and hearts. The
audience was large and the tent well filled in the
morning. In the afternoon, it was full to overflow-
ing, and it was calculated that there were at least
three thousand persons in it, besides many who stood
around the open sides, or sat in their own carriages
on the grounds.
Nearly seven hundred of the alumni were present,
that is, almost one-half of the whole number of living
graduates a number two or three times larger than
had ever before attended Commencement, and " a
larger proportion, probably, than ever assembled at
any American college." Every class was repre-
sented. One-third of the first class ('22) was present
one-half of its living members. That half was
Professor Snell. He lamented in his address the
absence of the other half, which he modestly and
playfully declared to be "the first half, the oldest
half, the greatest half, and the best half" the Rev.
Pindar Field. All the surviving members of the
second class ('23) were present, viz. : Rev. The-
ophilus Packard and Rev. Hiram Smith, both from
the far West; '24, '26, and '27, were each represented
by three persons, about one-third of the surviving
members, and these came from almost as many differ-
ent States and belonged to nearly as many different
occupations as there were persons. The class of '25
was the only class except that of Professor Snell, of
which there was but a single representative present,
and he came from Conway in obedience to a tele-
graphic dispatch sent by some zealous brother
alumnus that every class might be represented. Six
out of seventeen survivors represented '28, '29 was
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 195
represented by five out of nineteen, '30 by ten out of
sixteen, '31 by fifteen out of thirty -seven, and '32
by nine out of twenty-three. So much for the first
decade. In the second decade ('32-' 42), the largest
number present was from '39, viz., sixteen out
of thirty-seven living members; and the largest
proportion was from '36, viz., thirteen out of
twenty-eight. The average attendance from the
classes of this decade exceeded thirty-five per cent
of the living members. In the third decade the per-
centage was but little more than twenty-five. In the
fourth decade it ran up nearly to fifty per cent, and
in the last period, as might have been expected, it
rose to considerably more than half the living mem-
bers. The largest number from any one class was
from '69, who by special request granted by special
favor of the trustees, received their second degree in
1871, and who were represented by thirty- three mem-
bers. Next to '69 stood '65, being represented by
twenty-nine members. These facts, which may per-
haps be reckoned among the " curiosities of the jubi-
lee," have been gathered from the cards which were
hung, one for each class, in the reception room in
Walker Hall, and to which the names of the alumni
were transferred as fast as they registered them, so
that each alumnus might know who of his class were
present, and where they were to be found. These
cards or scrolls (for they are more than a foot
square) have been preserved, and will be among the
curiosities of literature in coming ages. The original
register in which the alumni entered their names
as they arrived may also be seen in the library, and
is an autograph book of rare and unique interest.
196 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The alumni came from every part of our own
country and from every quarter of the globe. Class-
mates and friends who boarded together, perhaps
roomed together, perhaps sat side by side for four
years, but who had not seen each other for ten,
twenty, thirty, forty, almost fifty years, met as
strangers, gazed in each other's faces, heard each
other's voices, and perhaps did not discover a trace
of the features or even the tones once so familiar, or
did perhaps catch a ray, and at length, with the help
maybe of a hint or allusion from a bystander, began
to conjecture the person; but when the discovery
was made, they rushed into each other's embrace.
Many such scenes of bewilderment marked these
meetings and greetings in which the language was
often little more than a strange mixture of laughter
and tears. Wednesday evening was given up to a
reunion in College Hall, and much of the night was
spent in class meetings of such deep and thrilling
interest as only they who have been present at such
meetings know, and even they cannot fully tell.
They seem to have gone away pleased with them-
selves and each other, proud of their mother, loving
their brothers^ feeling that they had a good time,
and fully persuaded that whoever should keep the
centennial jubilee of the college in 1921 would have
a still better time and find a great deal more to ad-
mire and rejoice in.
Several of the classes left behind them class schol-
arships as an expression of their gratitude and filial
devotion. The plan as originated by Prof. R. D.
Hitchcock contemplated at least one by each class.
His own class set the example by establishing
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 197
three. 1 The catalogue issued in the fall of 1871,
next after the jubilee, announces fifty scholarships
in all, of which about half were not on the previous
catalogue, 2 and several other class scholarships as
established in part. When the harvest is all gathered
in, perhaps the result will be not less than fifty
scholarships of one thousand dollars each, which,
with Mr. Williston's donation, will make up the
handsome sum of one hundred thousand dollars of
free-will offerings resulting directly or indirectly
from the jubilee.
1 Including that established by Governor Bullock.
2 Several of these are not class scholarships.
CHAPTER X.
DIFFICULTIES IN SELECTING PRESIDENT STEARNS's SUC-
CESSOR PROFESSOR SEELYE'S ELECTION SUCCESS-
FUL OPENING OF HIS ADMINISTRATION ADDITIONS
TO THE FACULTY THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESI-
DENT SEELYE INAUGURATION OF THE " AMHERST
SYSTEM" REMARKABLE PROSPERITY OF THE COL-
LEGE.
THERE were several novel and important features
in the accession of Professor Seelye to the presidency.
He was the first and only alumnus of the college who
has attained to that distinction. He was the first
professor on the literary and philosophical side of the
faculty to be elevated to that office. But aside from
these incidental novelties a new question arose for
the first time in connection with his nomination and
election. In the appointment of his predecessors it
was taken for granted, as a matter of course, that the
president of Amherst College must be a clergyman
that he was to be the head of the college in its
spiritual interests as well as in literature and science,
and that he must be chosen with primary reference
to his Christian character and his influence in the
religious education of the students. When Professor
Seelye was elected, there was a minority of the trus-
tees, and perhaps a majority of the faculty, who were
at first in favor of the appointment of a distinguished
198
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 199
layman, who might give dignity to the office and
bring reputation to the college. And this movement
was prevented from being successful and becoming
an accomplished fact by circumstances so remarkable
that I cannot but regard them as special providences
deserving to be recorded by the historian of the col-
lege among the magnalia of its early history.
I have therefore taken not a little pains to ascer-
tain the facts from original and authentic sources,
and put them on record till such times as they can
be incorporated with the history of the college with-
out injury to the feelings of any of the actors, which
will probably not be until not only myself but they
also have passed off the stage. Meanwhile the fol-
lowing general statements may perhaps be recorded
without impropriety in this history.
In justice to those who favored such a departure
from the precedents and traditions not only of Am-
herst, but of all our older colleges, it should be re-
marked that the recent establishment of a professor-
ship of the pastoral care, whose incumbent should be
the pastor of the College Church, or associate pastor
with the president, doubtless seemed to them to ren-
der it less important that the president should be a
clergyman and one who would be especially inter-
ested in the Christian education of the students.
President Stearns died suddenly, as we have nar-
rated in a preceding chapter, on Thursday, June 8,
1876. He had fully determined to resign the presi-
dency at the approaching Commencement, and had
already written his resignation. He wished, how-
ever, and expected, to retain for the present the pas-
torate and the Samuel Green professorship of Biblical
200 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
interpretation. This was the more natural and proper
because the founder of the professorship had ex-
pressly provided in his will that Dr. Stearns should
perform the duties of the office and have the income
of the fund during his life. Only one week prior to
his death he had an interview with his friend, Hon.
Alpheus Hardy, in Boston, in which he disclosed to
him his plan and purpose, and desired him to com-
municate the same to the trustees at their approach-
ing meeting and carry the measure through the
board, adding that it was with this view that he had
induced the trustees not to accept Mr. Hardy's resig-
nation of his trusteeship tendered the year previous,
and there was no other member of the board to whom
he could so freely and fully confide a matter of so
great importance. Mr. Hardy accepted the trust in
the same spirit of confidence and friendship in which
it had been committed to him, and then asked Presi-
dent Stearns if, in view of the trust thus reposed and
thus undertaken, he would be willing further to make
known to him his views in regard to the question
who should be his successor in the presidency. Presi-
dent Stearns then expressed himself with great
frankness to his friend, and gave him the names of
three men, all clergymen and all alumni of the college,
either of whom he thought would fill the place well,
and one of whom he hoped might succeed him in the
presidential office. One of those names was that of
Professor Seelye. Just a week after that interview
Mr. Hardy took up a newspaper in New York, and
read of the sudden death of President Stearns.
At the annual meeting of the trustees, June 27,
1876- only three weeks after the death of the presi-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2OI
dent a committee was appointed to take into con-
sideration the presidential vacancy and report at a
meeting to be held in Boston not later than the first
week in August. This committee found themselves
beset with difficulties. They differed among them-
selves, both as to the general question whether the
president should be a clergyman, and in their per-
sonal preferences in regard to the most suitable can-
didate for the office; and this difference of wishes
and feelings in the committee represented or reflected
a corresponding difference in the whole board. The
members of the faculty were officially consulted, and
it was found that they were about equally divided,
half of them favoring strongly the appointment of
Professor Seelye, and the other half preferring some
other candidate, the scientific professors, as a general
fact, being unfavorable, and those in the departments
of literature and history favorable to the appoint-
ment of Professor Seelye. Besides their fear that
he would not do justice to science in the presidency,
there were personal and general grounds of opposi-
tion both in the faculty and in the Board of Trustees.
He would not be popular with the students. He
could not sympathize with young men. He would
be autocratic, overbearing, and severe in the admin-
istration of the government. He would not be, he
could not be expected to be, impartial in his relations
to the faculty. In short, it was a pity to spoil a good
professor in order to make a poor president.
Political prejudices also came in to aggravate the
difficulty. Professor Seelye was at this time a mem-
ber of Congress, having been elected in 1874 over
the nominees of both the great parties by the inde-
202 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
pendent votes of republicans and democrats. He
had already served through the first session of the
Forty-fourth Congress with distinguished success, and
was bound in honor to represent his constituents in
the coming second session, and what further political
possibilities, probabilities, temptations, and aspira-
tions might lie before him in the future no one could
tell. He had been suspected at one time, very un-
justly, of aspiring to supersede Dr. Stearns in the
presidency of the college. Now perhaps he would be
tempted to aspire to the presidency of the United
States. There was a strange fascination in the at-
mosphere of Washington which it was not easy for
those who had once breathed it to resist. Professor
Seelye would of course be solicited to be a candidate
for a second term in the House of Representatives, 1
and would naturally desire re-election, and this might
open the way to the- Senate, to a place in the Cabinet,
to no one knew what honors. Under such circum-
stances it was not at all likely that he would accept
the presidency of the college, if it was offered him.
After much discussion, at the close of a long^ session
which came perilously near to ending without any-
thing being done, the committee at length agreed
to open a correspondence with him and offer him the
nomination on certain conditions. The correspond-
ence was opened, but it only multiplied and aggra-
vated the difficulties. The office of representative
1 If this question of the Amherst presidency had come up
three or four months later, if, for instance, President Stearns
had died in September, instead of in June, President Seelye
would in all probability have been committed to a continuance
in political life, and would have been lost to the college.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 203
in Congress had come to him unsought and uncondi-
tioned ; why should he submit to any conditions
now? No pledges were required of him then; why
should they be asked of him now?
The whole thing wore too much the aspect of a
bargain, and a bargain for a place was to him an un-
speakable abhorrence. He had never in his life
lifted a hand or paid a penny for a place, and it
would be soon enough for him to say whether he
would accept the presidency of Amherst College
when it was freely and fully offered to him. In tlie
course of the correspondence, which was prolonged
and some of it spicy, it became apparent that while
the professor had little taste or inclination for poli-
tics, he had a positive dislike and disinclination to
many of the peculiar and perfunctory duties of a
college president, which nothing but a manifest call
of Providence and an imperative sense of duty could
induce him to undertake.
But I have already gone more into the details of
this transaction than I intended, perhaps more than
was prudent or necessary. Suffice it to say, that the
committee was at length led, it is needless to say
how, to offer him a unanimous call ; tlie professor
was led to see, it is not necessary to say under what
influences, that it was a call of duty and of God ; and
at a meeting of the board held in Boston on the 28th of
July, 1876, the trustees by a unanimous vote elected
him president and professor of mental and moral phil-
osophy in Amherst College. And it is now quite un-
necessary to tell in detail how completely experience
has falsified the fears and forebodings of those who op-
posed the election of Professor Seelye to the presi-
204 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
dency. It was feared that he would be partial to
literature and philosophy, and unfriendly to science.
One of the first acts of his administration was to take
measures for the purchase by the college of the
Shepard cabinet and to raise by his own personal
efforts the large sum of money by which it was pro-
cured. This was soon followed by the inauguration
of the department of biology and the Stone endow-
ment. It was feared that he would be partial to his
particular friends in the faculty, and harbor resent-
ment against those who opposed his election. So far
from that, the language of the Tyrian queen would
seem to have been his motto:
Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur.
It was said that he would be dictatorial and severe
in his administration of the government, unsympa-
thizing and so unpopular with the students. " The
New System" of self-government at Amherst, which
is the admiration of Amherst students and the envy
or the model of other colleges, is the best and the
sufficient answer to this allegation. Indeed they
who feared any such thing of President Seelye could
have known little of Professor Seelye's devotion of
time, talents, attainments, and personal services to
individual students. This grand secret of his power
and usefulness as a teacher had only a freer scope
and wider sway and higher appreciation when he
became president. They had more reason who ap-
prehended that his sovereign contempt and scorn for
everything unworthy of a man and a scholar might
make him impatient of the follies and imperfections
of students. But responsibility brings patience and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 205
forbearance, and this fear proved to be utterly
groundless. It was said that he would have neither
talent nor disposition to raise money for the college.
The Shepard cabinet, the Parmly Billings professor-
ship of hygiene and physical education, the Chester
W. Chapin endowment of the presidency, the Stone
professorship of biology, the Marquand instructorship
in elocution, the Winkley professorship of history,
the rebuilding of Walker Hall after the conflagra-
tion, the Pratt gymnasium, the Henry T. Morgan
library, the munificent donation of Mr. D. Willis
James for the general purposes of the college coming
into the treasury after his resignation, but given out
of special regard to him, and hence named the Seelye
Fund all these and other gifts of which a more defi-
nite statement will be given on a subsequent page,
rise up before us and testify how utterly without
foundation, and diametrically opposite to the truth,
this prediction was. True, several of these gifts,
perhaps most of them, were not solicited, but the
witness they bear is only the more unequivocal and
the more eloquent because the gifts were the spon-
taneous expression of the confidence and good will
of the donors.
In short, I believe that the same wise and kind
Providence that has raised up his predecessors, all
excellent men, and each with gifts and graces suited
to the exigency, made President Seelye, and educated
him, and sanctified him, and by all his antecedents
prepared him, in the first place to be a great and
rare educator, and then to be president of Amherst
College and guide it in the accomplishment of its
great work ; and so God did not permit His plan and
206 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
purpose to be thwarted by the disinclination of the
candidate himself, by the doubts and mistakes of
good men and friends of the college, or by outside
temptations, however strong, to other spheres of
action.
President Seelye's election took place, as we have
already said, in July, 1876, and he entered upon the
duties of the office in September at the beginning of
the next collegiate year. But in accordance with his
understanding with the trustees he completed his
term of service in Congress by sitting through its
second session, leaving the acting presidency mean-
while in the hands of Prof. W. S. Tyler ; and he was
not inaugurated until the close of his first year. The
inauguration took place at Commencement, June 27,
1877. The public exercises consisted of prayer by
Rev. Edmund K. Alden, D.D., of Boston, the address
on the part of the trustees and the delivery of the seal
and the keys of the college by Rev. Prof. Roswell D.
Hitchcock of Union Theological Seminary in New
York, and the inaugural address of President Seelye.
Dr. Hitchcock spoke with characteristic felicity, begin-
ning as follows: "The whole college bids you wel-
come to its highest seat, trustees, alumni, teachers
and students are all united and earnest in the persua-
sion of your eminent fitness for the new position,
united and earnest also in the expectation of your emi-
nent success. You are no stranger here, and nothing
is strange to you. Made president of the college after
eighteen years of constant and conspicuous service
in one of its departments of instruction, the element
of novelty is almost wholly wanting. Retaining the
chair in which you have earned your fame, you now
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2O/
merely add to its familiar duties that general over-
sight of the institution with which you must be al-
most equally familiar.
" You are also well across the threshold of the new
office. The class that graduates to-morrow carries
with it the memory of your first presidential year.
And neither you nor we have anything to ask for but
a repetition of the year's record for many and many
a year to come.
" The college is happy and proud to be led at last
by one of its own alumni. Your four predecessors
were all providential men. The four administra-
tions lie in our history like so many geological de-
posits. The future need not contradict nor criticise
the past, but a robust vitality instinctively asserts
itself in better and better forms. We salute you,
therefore, at once as the fifth and as the first of. our
Amherst presidents."
The inaugural address is equally characteristic.
Its subject is " The Relations of Learning and Relig-
ion." It begins with stating the fact, that "Am-
herst College was founded by Christian people and
for a Christian purpose. . . . From President Moore,
in whose saintly zeal the earliest students of the
college found both instruction and inspiration, to
President Stearns, whose purity and faith surrounded
his presence like a halo, ennobling him and enlight-
ening and elevating all who had contact with him,
the controlling purpose of the college has been to
provide the highest possible educational advantages,
and to penetrate these with a living faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and a supreme devotion to His
kingdom. And in all this Amherst College is not
208 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
peculiar. Other institutions of learning have been
founded and carried forward with the same purpose.
The schools of the Christian world trace their actual
historical origin to the Christian church."
The middle and main staple of the address is the
author's philosophy of the subject, which is briefly
this: There is no inherent law of progress in human
nature. Over by far the larger portion of the globe,
and by far the larger portion of mankind, retrogres-
sion reigns instead of progress, and this is true as
we look back through all ages. So far as records of
history go, no nation ever originated its own prog-
ress. No savage has ever civilized himself. The
lamp which lightens one nation in its progress has
always been lighted by a lamp behind it. Civiliza-
tion comes to a people not from itself, but from an-
other, not from within but from without, not from
below but from above, not from the many and bad
but from the few and the wise and the good, ulti-
mately from heaven and Christ and God. In the
history of human knowledge science is always pre-
ceded and quickened by art, yet art does not sponta-
neously originate. While the mother of science, she
herself is the child of religion. Architecture, sculp-
ture, painting, poetry, music, it was a religious im-
pulse which gave to all these their first inspiration.
There is no high art, there is never a great genius,
uninspired by some sort of a religious sentiment and
impulse. As the seed whose growth shall fill the
fields with plenty and also the earth with beauty,
slumbers in the earth in darkness, and with no signs
of life till the warmth of the sun comes nigh, so all
the thoughts of men, with whatever capabilities of
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 209
art and science endowed, lie dormant in the soul till
some divine communication stirs the soul with the
sense of its accountability and its sin and kindles it
with a longing for the favor of its God.
And the conclusion of the whole matter is this:
" A Christian college, if it is to be in the long run
truly successful in the advancement of learning, will
have the Christian name written not alone upon its
seal and its first records, but graven in its life as in-
effaceably as was the name of Phidias on Athene's
shield. It will seek for Christian teachers and only
these men in whom -are seen the dignity and purity
and grace of Christ's disciples, and whose lips instruct
while their lives inspire. It will order all its studies
and its discipline that its pupils, through the deep and
permanent impulse of a life by the faith of the Son
of God, may be led to the largest thoughts and
kindled to the highest aims with an energy undying,
and an enthusiasm which does not fade. It will not
be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ nor remiss in
preaching that gospel to its students, 'till they all
come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God unto a perfect man. ' "
With such views of the relation of learning and
religion, and fully believing, as he did, that the presi-
dent of a college should be its religious as well as its
secular head, it is not surprising that he chose to be
the pastor of the College Church. He was installed
in the pastoral office in June, 1877, even before he
was inaugurated in the presidency, an ecclesiastical
council, consisting mainly of the pastors and dele-
gates of the neighboring churches, being invited by
the College Church to assist in the installation ser-
E LiB
OF THE
UNIVERSITY,
2IO A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
vices, and a sermon being preached by Rev. Dr. R. S.
Storrs of Brooklyn, a graduate of the college, and a
member of its Board of Trustees. At the same time,
magnifying the pulpit and the pastoral office as an
educating power, and feeling that there was work
enough in that line to task the energies of more than
one man, and that work could not be fully done with-
out some one being charged with the special respon-
sibility of it, he welcomed an associate pastor in the
Samuel Green professor of Biblical history and
interpretation and pastoral care. According to the
will of the founder of this professorship, it will be
remembered, its incumbent must be either pastor or
associate pastor of the College Church, and, while it
was expressly provided that Dr. Stearns should hold
the professorship together with the presidency, it
was required that after him the two offices should be
separated, and during the presidency of Dr. Seelye
he continued to be the pastor of the church, and the
Samuel Green professor was the associate pastor. 1
Besides the president and the professor of the pas-
toral care, several other professors who were clergy-
men occupied the college pulpit in turn, as they had
been accustomed to do from the beginning, thus se-
curing that variety which is so attractive to young
men, and at the same time enlisting the professors
directly in ministering to the spiritual welfare as
1 Experience at length convinced President Seelye that the
professor of the "pastoral care" ought to be the pastor of the
College Church, and in one of his later annual reports to the
trustees he states to them this conviction, saying that while
personally he should prefer to be himself the pastor, the pas-
toral office was essential to the free and full discharge of the
duties of the Samuel Green professorship.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 211
well as the intellectual culture of the students. This
arrangement may not be as acceptable to students as
that which now prevails of inviting popular preachers
from abroad to occupy the pulpit several Sundays
every year. But it had its counterbalancing advan-
tages. While providing a good measure of variety
it did not minister to mere curiosity and love of
novelty, and it did secure in a greater degree unity
of instruction and impression, adaptation to the pre-
vailing and changing wants of the audience, and
concentration of the whole power and influence of
the faculty upon the Christian character and life of
the college. President Seelye believed in the forma-
tion of character and the education and training of
the whole man as the chief end of the college, in the
pulpit as a great power in such education, and in
ministers as by their own training, character, and
life an educating guild, class, or profession. He had
no sympathy with the now prevailing and growing
prejudice against clerical presidents and professors,
still less with the clamor and outcry among college
students against so-called compulsory attendance
upon church and chapel Cervices. Much as he en-
joyed teaching his favorite philosophy to the senior
class, he delighted still more in preaching the word
of God and the gospel of Christ to the whole college.
And he preached usually without notes, but never
without much thought and prayer, the great central
truths of Christianity with a depth of thought, a
breadth of learning, a power of reasoning, a wealth of
expression, and a fervor of feeling which lifted his
hearers quite above themselves and the world into the
very presence of God and of things unseen and eternal.
212 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
The first incumbent of the Samuel Green professor-
ship and the office of associate pastor with President
vSeelye was Rev. Thomas P. Field, who entered upon
the duties of the office in 1878. Dr. Field had gained
a wide experience and won an enviable reputation
both in college and in the pastoral office, having been
both a tutor and the professor of rhetoric and oratory
in Amherst, and pastor of churches successively in
Danvers, Mass., Troy, N. Y., and New London,
Conn. By his attractive person, sympathetic nature,
courteous manners, high scholarship, wide and varied
culture, and his success as a teacher and a preacher,
he was admirably fitted for the place. But to borrow
his own language in his brief history of Amherst
College written for the bureau of education, " as no
more preaching was required of him than of the
other preaching professors, as the president continued
to be the pastor of the College Church, and as there
were difficulties in the way of pastoral visitation not
found in other parishes, the first incumbent of the
professorship was a professor rather than a pastor.
He gave instruction in the Hebrew language and
literature, gave some lectures on Biblical history and
on examples of Christian character, and taught classes
in natural theology and the evidences of Christianity,
devoting as many hours to such instruction as the
other professors did in their departments. This did
not seem to be precisely the original object of the
professorship, but came as near to accomplishing the
same as appeared to be practicable under the cir-
cumstances, with the continual consciousness, how-
ever, on the part of the incumbent that something
better might be attempted and done. With that
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 213
feeling he resigned the professorship in 1886, and
after a few months Rev. George S. Burroughs, of
New Britain, Conn., was appointed." With superior
talents, fine scholarship, courteous manners, an ami-
able spirit, Christian zeal, and a heartfelt desire for
the temporal and eternal welfare of the students, Dr.
Burroughs labored with rare fidelity, earnestness,
and enthusiasm as pastor, preacher, and teacher, and
accomplished much for the upbuilding of the College
Church and the advancement of Christian learning.
His success as a Bible teacher in inspiring even irre-
ligious students with enthusiasm in the study of the
Scriptures was remarkable. In the pulpit and the
work of the pastor he found it more difficult to real-
ize his high ideals, and when, in 1892, he was invited
to the presidency of Wabash College, the conscious-
ness of this difficulty perhaps conspired with the
attractions of the new sphere of usefulness in induc-
ing him to accept the call.
President Seelye was wise and happy in his choice
of new professors. His first question in regard to
a candidate was not, Is he popular, has he a high
reputation and a great name, is he already distin-
guished as a scholar and a teacher? but, What sort of
a man is he, is he a real, true, and complete man?
He must be a Christian of course, for " the Christian
is the highest style of man." He must be a scholar,
for how can he teach what he does not know? He
must be apt to teach, for teaching, not discovery or
original research, is the business of the college pro-
fessor. It is well that he should be a discoverer,
with a mind open to receive the truth, all truths
whether new or old, although the man who knows
214 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the most, and has made the greatest discoveries, is
not always the best teacher. But first of all, and
above all, he must be a man, and full of a noble am-
bition to make others men, for to make men is the
chief end of a college education. Or if, as the old
Greek philosopher said of his countryman, the candi-
date is not yet a full-grown man, he must give prom-
ise of becoming such, and of being able, by precept
and example, to make others such as he himself
aspires and promises to be. Hence President Seelye
sought his professors chiefly not among those who
had done their work and won their reputation in
other institutions, but among the graduates of Am-
herst, whom he personally knew and upon whom he
had placed his own shaping hand, and let them grow
under his own eye and influence from instructors to
assistant professors, and from assistants to associates
and heads of departments. Accordingly there was
a time in his administration when the writer of this
history could speak of all the faculty as having been
his pupils, and the president could have said to his
ablest professors, as the aged Phoenix did to the hero
of the Iliad:
"Great as them art, my lessons made thee brave.
A child I took thee, but a hero gave."
By taking its teachers, for the most part, from the
ranks of its own graduates, and paying, as a rule and
a principle, the same salary to all regular professors
after due trial and full approval, Amherst has escaped
envyings and jealousies, divisions and contentions
in the faculty, and secured a substantial unity, a
fraternal sympathy, a hearty cooperation, and a stead-
fast adherence to the ideals of the college, which
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 21$
have contributed not a little to its peace and pros-
perity.
Elihu Root, professor of mathematics and natural
philosophy; Anson D. Morse, professor of history;
Henry B. Richardson, professor of German ; John
M. Tyler, professor of biology;. Charles E. Garman,
professor of mental and moral philosophy ; David P.
Todd, professor of astronomy; John F. Genung, pro-
fessor of rhetoric ; Henry A. Frink, professor of ora-
tory ; William L. Cowles, professor of Latin all these
were inaugurated in their professorships under the
administration and on the recommendation of Presi-
dent Seelye. All but two of them are graduates of
Amherst. Only one of them had been a professor in
another college. All but one were men who, after
having pursued studies preliminary to their pro-
fessorships at home and abroad, began their teach-
ing in Amherst, gained their experience and their
reputation in Amherst, have been identified with
Amherst in their own education and their education
of others. All superior scholars, all consistent and
devoted Christians, all students, workers, teachers,
educators making a business of teaching and magni-
fying education as the highest calling, some of them
known also as authors of text- books, writers for the
magazines, and lecturers in the cause of university
extension, they have all been a success, an honor to
the college and an ornament to their profession.
President Seelye himself continued to teach for
some years after his elevation to the presidency, in
the department of intellectual and moral philosophy
which he had so adorned as a professor. Finding
his labors too exhausting, and seeing in Mr. Garman
15
2l6 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
a philosopher of his own school and a teacher after
his own heart, he at first divided the work of teach-
ing the senior class equally with him, and ere long
resigned it entirely into his hands. And he has been
heard to say that, by introducing the spiritual phil-
osophy into the college, and leaving the department
in the hands of such a teacher, he has conferred a
greater benefit on the institution than all his other
services. And Prof. W. B. Smith, of Union Theo-
logical Seminar} 7 , gave the sanction of his great name
to this high estimate of the value of this department
as it exists in Amherst College.
President Seelye has always insisted that the
strength of a college lies, not in magnificent build-
ings, elegant grounds, large endowments, or a large
number of students, but in the high character and
able and faithful work of its faculty. Hence his
great care in the choice of professors, the weighty
responsibility which he devolved on every teacher
for the good order and high scholarship of his classes,
and the kind sympathy and cordial support which he
gave to every teacher in the faithful discharge of his
duties. And the whole faculty in return, the older
members as well as the younger men, were united
as one man in love and loyalty to their president,
sustained him in harmonious and happy faculty
meetings, and stood by him, shoulder to shoulder, in
the execution of measures which he perhaps had
originated and they had approved.
Three professors of sterling worth died in office
during the presidency of Dr. Seelye Ebenezer
Strong Snell, Elihu Root, and Richard Henry
Mather.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 217
Professor Snell was altogether a unique personage
in the history of Amherst College, and deserves a
fuller portraiture than can be given in this history.
We can only refer those who wish for an outline sketch
of his life and character to our original work. Here
it must suffice to say that he was born in North
Brookfield, Mass., October 17, 1801, and died Sep-
tember 1 8, 1876, and was therefore a little short of
seventy-five at the time of his death ; that he was the
first student that was admitted and among the first
that were graduated at the college, and the first tutor
and the first professor among the alumni, and gave
it more than fifty years of study and labor and care
and painstaking, of the ablest instructions and the
best services that have ever been given to Amherst
or any other college; that, as professor of mathema-
tics and natural philosophy, for exactness, clearness,
and method in teaching, and skill as an experimental
lecturer, he cannot be surpassed; that, by his own
mechanical ingenuity and handicraft and his pro-
gressive mastery of the science, with a comparatively
trifling expenditure of money by the college, he kept
his cabinet abreast of the most costly apparatus of
the richest colleges in the land, while, at the same
time, he invented and constructed not a few machines
illustrative of mechanics and physics which were not
then to be found in any of them ; that a vein of quiet
humor and a felicitous turn of expression conspired
with his modesty, simplicity, and kindness to make
him one of the most genial of companions and col-
leagues, as well as one of the most admired and be-
loved of teachers, while his pupils felt the constant
presence and power of something better than any
2l8 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
teaching, lecturing, or preaching in his true, pure,
and exemplary Christian life.
Elihu Root, who succeeded Professor Snell in the
professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy,
was born in Belchertown, September 14, 1845, and
died in his native place, December 3, 1880. He was
only thirty-five at the time of his death, and had been
only four years professor of mathematics and natural
philosophy ; and one of these years he was only as-
sistant professor. But he had distinguished himself
before his appointment by his high rank as a scholar
in Williston Seminary, by winning several prizes in
college and delivering the valedictory oration at his
graduation, by his success as a teacher at Williston,
and as an instructor at Amherst, by five years of
successful study of philosophy and physics at Gottin-
gen, Leipsic, and Berlin in Germany, and not least
perhaps by his able thesis on dielectric polarization
when he received the degree of Ph.D. at Berlin.
And it is not easy to say whether he was more ad-
mired in college for his profound knowledge of
physics and mathematics, or more beloved for his
pure, beautiful, and noble character and life. But,
alas, his bodily health and strength were not equal
to his aspirations, and exertions and, like a flower
nipped in the bud, he was cut down in the very begin-
ning of his life-work.
"Oh, what a noble heart was here undone,
When Science's self destroyed her favorite son !
Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit ;
She sowed the seeds, but Death has reaped the fruit."
Professor Root was succeeded by Dr. Marshall
Henshaw, not, however, with the title of professor
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2 19
of mathematics and natural philosophy, but only as
lecturer in that department. He was graduated at
Amherst with high honor in the same class with
Prof. Francis A. March, the class of 1845. He had
been a successful and highly honored professor of
mathematics and natural philosophy in Rutgers Col-
lege under President Frelinghuysen. He had been
the principal of Williston Seminary fourteen years,
teaching the senior class on the classical side in Latin
and Greek, and lecturing to the seniors on the Eng-
lish side in physics with singular ability and success,
and raising the seminary to a height of prosperity
and renown which it has never before or since
reached. In his annual report to the trustees in
1883, after Dr. Henshaw had, by the experience of
two years, proved his rare ability and skill both as a
teacher and a lecturer, President Seelye recommended
that he should be appointed professor of natural phi-
losophy, saying, " He has all of Professor Snell's
remarkable skill and ease in the handling of his ap-
paratus in the lecture room, and a more extensive
knowledge of the latest developments of the science
of physics than Professor Snell in his later life was
able to maintain; and while he does not equal Pro-
fessor Root, as very few do, in the highest attain-
ments of science, he 'exceeds him in clearness and
interest and force as a lecturer." But the trustees
did not make the appointment, the professorship of
natural philosophy was not filled during President
Seelye's administration, and Dr. 1 Henshaw contin-
1 Dr. Henshaw received the degree of Ph.D. from the Uni-
versity of New York in 1863, and that of D.D. from Amherst
in 1872.
220 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ued to do the work of a professor under the title of
lecturer till, in 1890, increasing bodily infirmities led
him to resign.
Richard Henry Mather was born in Binghamton,
N. Y., February 12, 1835. The blood of some of the
best families of New England the Mathers, the
Masons, the Whitings, the Edwardses flowed in his
veins. He was graduated with highest honors both
at Williston Seminary and at Amherst College, de-
livering the salutatory oration at the former and the
valedictory at the latter at his graduation. To the
discipline of the preparatory school and the college,
he added the culture derived from repeated travel
and study in foreign lands study in Germany and
Athens, travel at different times in Italy, Greece,
Egypt, and Palestine. An accomplished scholar, an
inspiring teacher, an eloquent preacher, a skilful
man of affairs, a delightful companion, neighbor,
and friend, with a personality that charmed all who
knew him or met him, and made them his friends and
the friends of the college, he loved Amherst more than
he loved himself, gave it thirty-one years of able,
faithful, and devoted service, subordinated to it all his
personal ends, consecrated to it all his gifts, graces,
and attainments, procured for it donations, endow-
ments, and educational appliances. The Mather Art
Collection was his gift as well as his monument. He
raised all the money and made all the purchases for
the singularly rich and choice selection. The rare
architectural perfection of the new library building
was largely due to his excellent taste, sound judg-
ment, and remarkable business efficiency in superin-
tending the enlargement. The John R. Newton
OF THE
[UNIVERSITY,
.CALIFORNIA-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 221
professorship of Greek was the gift of one whom he
had attached to himself and to the college by his
preaching and his personal attractions. But his most
precious and enduring memorial was in the minds,
and hearts, and life, and character of his numerous
pupils. He taught them not merely the language,
archaeology, and art of the Greeks, not merel) r their
poetry, and history, and philosophy, but their litera-
ture, and life, and morals, and religion. Nay, every
lecture and recitation was a lesson in " the humani-
ties," in human nature and human life, in the art of
living, and living well. Hence he was a power in
the government of the college, as well as in its edu-
cation. President Seelye loved him and leaned upon
him, and it was a sad hour and a sore trial to the
good president when, on returning from a voyage to
Europe for his own health, his first news was the
death of his friend and brother, and his first public
service was in officiating at his funeral. It was an
irreparable loss to the college, a profound grief to
troops of friends, and a sore disappointment to him-
self. He had spent the previous year in travel and
study, partly in Germany, but chiefly in Greece and
the island of Sicily, amid the monuments of Grecian
architecture and sculpture and the scenes of Grecian
life, and returned enriched with new materials for
his work, inspired with new enthusiasm for his call-
ing, fondly hoping, fully expecting to begin a new
epoch, and that the most fruitful and brilliant in his
life. Alas, he came back to suffer in a prolonged and
painful sickness, to die a lingering and living death.
But in that sickness and death he taught us lessons of
resignation, fortitude, patience, and faith more im-
222 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
pressive and more sacred than he could have taught
in all the lectures and sermons of a long life.
We cannot conclude these sketches of the Amherst
faculty under the administration of President Seelye
without alluding to the somewhat tragical but truly
heroic element which Professor Crowell has con-
tributed to our history in his blindness. A distin-
guished graduate of Phillips Academ}% Andover, in
1849, and of Amherst College in 1853; teacher of
Latin and Greek in Williston Seminary from 1853 to
1855 ; tutor in Amherst College in 1855-1856 ; student
of theology at Andover in 1856 to 1858; professor of
Latin and instructor in German at Amherst from 1858
to 1864, professor of the Latin language and literature
from 1864 to the present time, and dean of the faculty
since 1880, he has given to the college more years of
able, faithful, and acceptable service than any other
professor, except Professors Snell and Tyler, and his
name now stands, next to that of the president, at
the head of all the active members of the faculty.
Meanwhile he has been representative in the Massa-
chusetts legislature one year, and for very many
years the compiler of the triennial catalogue and
the obituary records of the college. He prepared also
the " Roll of Members of Amherst College serving in
the Army and Navy of the United States during the
Rebellion," wrote the "History of the Town of Es-
sex," and edited school editions of "Cicero de Sen-
ectuteet Amicitia," " Cicero de Officiis," "Cicero de
Oratore," the " Andria and Adelphi of Terence," and
"Selections from the Latin Poets." In 1885 Pro-
fessor Crowell, after prolonged and acute suffering,
lost the sight of both his eyes. Yet he has not only
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 223
continued his instructions with unabated ability and
success, but is now preparing new and improved
editions of his classical text-books which give no
evidence of impaired vision, enters new fields of
study and teaching such as law and patristic Latin,
keeps himself and his department fully abreast of
the learning and spirit of the times, and, what is
perhaps most wonderful of all, maintains his cheer-
fulness, humor, and buoyancy of spirits, and mingles
in society and walks the streets, guided, of course,
by the same eye and hand of wife, or daughter, or
colleague, which have helped him in his literary
labors, with an erect attitude and a quick and firm
step which suggest to a stranger no thought that he
is bereft of sight. Well might the trustees, at their
annual meeting in 1886, express to Professor Crowell
by vote, and put it on record in their minutes, " their
gratification that he has been able to resume and
carry forward so successfully through the year the
duties of his department," a resolution which has been
more than justified every year of the seven years that
have since intervened.
The college is indebted to President Seelye for the
selection and appointment of a model librarian in
the person of Mr. William I. Fletcher, who is perfect
master of his art and profession, and knows how to
teach it both by precept and example, who has ren-
dered a service of inestimable value to all libraries
and all colleges by preparing and printing an index
of general literature corresponding to Poole's index
of periodicals, who has made himself useful and agree-
able not only to his own guild and college, but to the
college church, the town of Amherst, and the cause
224 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
of education and religion generally, and yet seems to
be always at his desk, always at the service of every
officer and every student, and always able and will-
ing to assist every reader, so far as it can be done by
books, in his investigations.
:VERSITY)
OF y
CHAPTER XI.
THE BURNING OF WALKER HALL THE BUILDINGS ERECTED
DURING THE ADMINISTRATION THE " AMHERST
SYSTEM" AMHERST COLLEGE REACHES ITS HIGHEST
PROSPERITY RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT SEELYE.
WHILE the character and work of the faculty was
foremost and uppermost in the thought and care
of President Seelye, he was not inattentive to the
buildings, the grounds, the funds, the campus, the
curriculum, the scholarship and deportment of
the students, the general administration of the col-
lege. The first necessity for special attention to the
buildings was occasioned by a great calamity which
befell the college. The fact is thus recorded by Rev.
Dr. Dwight, secretary of the Board of Trustees, on
the first page of the second volume of their records :
" On the night of the 29th of March, 1882, fire broke
out in Walker Hall, the most costly and beautiful
edifice of Amherst College ; and all its very valuable
contents were destroyed, with the exception of such
as were secured in its vault. Among other articles
that were lost was the second volume of the records
of the Board of Trustees, containing the minutes of
their meetings from the Commencement of 1868 to
the Commencement of 1881. Of these minutes all
that are now extant are a few scattered portions of
the original drafts, accidentally saved by the secre-
225
226 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
tary, which, fragmentary as they are, it has been
thought advisable to preserve."
On a subsequent page the secretary says : " Of the
meetings of the board in the years 1876-77-78 no
"record remains. " Of the meetings of the board in the
other years recorded in the book that was burned,
the diligence and skill of the secretary have given us
a record which, like other records from his hand, is
a model of accuracy and elegance, and which, frag-
mentary as it appeared to him, seemed to us to be
very complete.
Would that some superhuman wisdom and power
might have restored to us with equal completeness
the other treasures that were destroyed by the fire!
But alas, outside of the safe nothing was preserved.
Not a person could enter the burning building. From
the moment when the fire was discovered, probably
almost from the moment the building took fire, the
interior from roof to basement was wrapped in one
universal sheet of flame. The mathematical diagrams
of Professor Esty, the astronomical calculations of
Professor Todd the work of years, the official
papers and private studies of President Seelye, the
apparatus of Professor Snell, much of it the invention
of his own brain and the work of his own hand, all
went up in flame and smoke. The minerals of Pro-
fessor Shepard a collection of gems, a cabinet of
singular beauty and priceless worth even these min-
erals, strange to tell, were reduced to ashes ; scarcely
a trace of them could be found in the debris after
long and diligent search. It was vacation. The
faculty were mostly out of town. The writer of this
history was in Plainfield, N. J. He read the news
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 22/
in the morning paper, and, for a time, it seemed
almost as if Amherst College itself had gone up.
Walker Hall had cost as much as all the other build-
ings put together. President Seelye was in Bethel,
Conn. He was at first almost overwhelmed by the
intelligence. The calamity was the harder to bear,
because the property was insured for less than half
its value the building for only $35,000, when it cost
$TOO,OOO; the contents for only $15,000, though Pro-
fessor Shepard valued his collection alone at $75,000,
and the college had actually paid $40,000 for it. It
cost $10, ooo to replace Professor Snell's apparatus,
though much of it could not be replaced in the esti-
mation of the professor and the college. Still in one
week the president had procured from a single friend
of the college a subscription, which, together with
the $50,000 insurance, enabled him to restore the
building. At a special meeting of the Board of
Trustees held in Boston, May 2, 1882, it was voted
that Walker Hall be rebuilt at the earliest date prac-
ticable, and that the president, the treasurer, Pro-
fessor Mather, and Mr. A. L. Williston be the build-
ing committee. The two lower stories were rebuilt
substantially on the same plan, and devoted to the
same uses as before. The mineralogical collection,
which before occupied the third story, having been
so largely destroyed, and there being an urgent
necessity for more recitation rooms, that story was
chiefly devoted to that purpose, and was reconstructed
on an entirely different plan and in a different style
of architecture. The whole edifice was rebuilt in
accordance with the vote of the trustees, "at the
earliest date practicable," but with more solid ma-
228 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
terials and more perfect finish than that which pre-
ceded it, and as nearly fire-proof as possible, seem-
ingly regardless of cost, but with supreme regard at
once to permanence and elegance. And before an-
other year came round, Walker Hall stood again on
its old site, more than ever the archives, the treasury,
the capitol, the acropolis of Amherst College. Be-
sides the lesson of trust in God in the darkest hour
which the history of this calamity teaches us, it
should have taught us, we trust it has taught us, two
lessons of worldly wisdom: i. To beware of, or at
any rate handle with more care, those inflammable
materials which are so often used to paint and varnish
floors, and which are generally believed to have been
the cause of this fire. 2. College buildings, build-
ings generally which are built with charity funds,
should always be insured for their real value. 1
On the 1 2th of March, 1888, six years after the
burning of Walker Hall, on the night of the famous
blizzard, fire broke out in the block down town in
which Mr. Edward Dickinson had his office through
all the years in which he was treasurer of Amherst Col-
lege, and which was at this time occupied by his son
and successor in the office, Mr. W. A. Dickinson, and
destroyed all his books and papers, except the con-
tents of two safes. These books, pamphlets, and
papers were rich in materials for the history both of
the town and the college, and Mr. Dickinson was at
this very time engaged in classifying and arranging
them in due order to be preserved for the use of the
1 At the same special meeting in which they voted to rebuild
Walker Hall, the trustees of Amherst voted that the insurance
on the college buildings be increased to $300,000.
UNIVERSITY]
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 22Q
future historian. The college suffered no pecuniary
loss by their destruction, for papers of pecuniary
value were in the safe. But as materials for history
this collection probably surpassed in value any other
in the town, and the town and college sympathized
with Mr. Dickinson deeply in the loss. The college,
however, has this compensation: The destruction
of the office down town necessitated the removal of
the treasurer's office to Walker Hall, where it is near
the office of the president and the room in which the
trustees and the faculty hold their meetings, and
where it is convenient of access to all the members
of the college.
At the same special meeting of the Board of Trus-
tees at which it was voted to rebuild Walker Hall it
was also voted to proceed with the enlargement of
the library building; the same gentlemen were ap-
pointed the building committee, the two buildings
were in process of construction pari passu at the same
time and were completed in the course of the same
year, and it may be doubted which of the two is the
more remarkable for architectural beauty and adapta-
tion to the use for which it was intended. The en-
largement of the library building, or the erection of
a new one, had become a necessity. Not only were
the shelves of the old building already full, but stacks
of books encumbered and filled the floor which was
intended for a reading-room. It was doubtless easier
to plan for an entirely new building. But that would
cost more money, and would leave the old building,
which had many conveniences and attractive associa-
tions, useless and forsaken. And thanks to the wis-
dom of the building committee and the skill of the
230 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
architect, Mr. Francis R. Allen, who is a graduate
of the college, a plan was conceived which utilized
the old building, provided amply for present and
future enlargement, presented an exterior of great
architectural beauty and symmetry, and furnished
one of the best, most convenient, and most useful
library biiildings that can be found in this or any
other country. The first story of the old edifice was
retained for the working-rooms of the librarian and
his assistants ; the second story and main body of it
was given up entirely to the reading and consulting
room, with tables and chairs for readers and writers
occupying the floor, and shelves on the walls for a
working library, and books illustrative of the several
departments of instruction and the daily studies of
the students, while the general library and the mass
of the books was provided for by the addition in the
rear of a crystal palace containing seven stories of
fire-proof stacks of shelves in which every book is
within reach of a person standing on the floor, and
tables and chairs are furnished in every story for the
convenience of readers and writers. Finally, to give
architectural unity and beauty to the whole structure,
a vestibule or portico is prefixed which constitutes
the entrance to the building, contains an ornamental
stairway to the upper stories, and is itself adorned
in the lowe A story by the Nineveh sculptures let into
the walls. The students are allowed free access not
only to the reading-room, but, with the permission
and under the guidance of the librarian and his as-
sistant, they are admitted to the free use of the gen-
eral library for the pursuit of special studies; and
they do not abuse the privilege. Perhaps there is
UNIVERSITY)
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 231
no one thing in which the growth and progress of
the college is more strikingly manifest than in the
extent to which faculty and students, with the help
of our accomplished librarian, use the college library,
and make it useful in the work of education. And
it is pleasant to be able to add that, while the library
is so much more used and useful than it was in the
earlier years of our college history, the friends of the
college are endowing it with more ample means of
usefulness. Among other gifts, too numerous to
mention, the following deserve especial notice: A
gift of $5,000 made by David Sears of Boston in 1864
toward the erection of a new or the enlargement of
the old library building, which, by the accumulation
of interest and the addition of other contributions,
had grown in 1881 to $25,000; the bequest of $5,000
by Dr. Ebenezer Alden of Randolph, who from 1841
to 1874 was a wise and faithful trustee of the college
and watched the library with ceaseless vigilance,
and bequeathed this sum expressly toward its proper
care and administration; the bequest of $50,000 by
Joel Giles of Boston as a permanent fund for the in-
crease of the library ; and the munificent legacy of
over $80,000 by Henry T. Morgan, which, with a wis-
dom as remarkable as his liberality, he gave without
limitation to be expended at the discretion of the
trustees, and which could in no other way be so
suitably commemorated as by giving his name to the
library building.
The first action in regard to a new gymnasium was
taken in the same fruitful and happy special meeting
of the trustees in Boston in May, 1882, in which the
rebuilding of Walker Hall and the enlargement of
16
232 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the library building had their origin. At this meet-
ing it was voted that "the library building commit-
tee, together with Dr. Hitchcock and Mr. Charles
M. Pratt, be a committee to select plans and recom-
mend measures for the erection of a new gymnasium,
and to report at Commencement. " And at the annual
meeting at Commencement, it was voted " that the
committee heretofore appointed to superintend the
construction of a new gymnasium be empowered to
go forward with its erection, it being understood
that the expense of its erection will be defrayed by
Mr. Charles M. Pratt, of Brooklyn, and that the edi-
fice, when built, be known as the Pratt Gymnasium."
So many difficulties and delays, however, arose in
regard to the site, the grading, the construction, and
the heating of the building, that it was not finished
until the autumn of 1884. But when it was finished
and furnished, it was admired as one of the most
perfect buildings of its kind and for its purpose that
can anywhere be found, and it has been used with
great satisfaction not only as the headquarters of the
department of gymnastics and hygiene where Dr.
Hitchcock reigns supreme, but as the trys ting-pi ace
where the trustees, faculty, alumni, and guests and
friends of the college gather from year to year for
their Commencement dinners; and what will perhaps
be still more fresh in the memory of some of the
alumni, the place where, as under-graduates, they
met the under-graduates of Smith and Mount Hoi-
yoke in their so-called promenades.
The history of the building enterprises of President
Seelye's administration would be incomplete without
some allusion to two or three others which he recom-
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THE CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL LABORATORY BUILDING,
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A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 233
mended again and again to the action or the considera-
tion of the trustees, but was unable to carry into execu-
tion, e.g., the addition of a biological laboratory and
a larger lecture room to the Appleton cabinet, which
he recommended in 1886 and again in 1887, but which
was not completed till 1891 under the administration
of his successor; the reconstruction of the Barrett
Gymnasium, and its adaptation for a mineralogical
cabinet, which he urged year after year, but which re-
mains still unaccomplished; and the erection of anew
chemical laboratory commensurate with the growth of
the college and the wants of the department, to which
he adverts over and over again as an imperative neces-
sity, but which waited the Fayerweather bequest for
pecuniary means and the energy of President Gates
for its accomplishment. This generous bequest,
from which the college has received $70,000, and
would have received more if the intentions of the
testator had been faithfully executed, has enabled
the trustees to erect a magnificent scientific building,
or rather two buildings, the one for chemistry and
the other for physics, which together with the en-
largement of the scientific .apparatus, the increase of
the teaching forces, and the changes in the curriculum
and in the requirements for admission in these depart-
ments, and perhaps also the renovation of North and
South Colleges, have brought in a larger number of
students than the college has ever had before. But
these things do not come within the scope of the
present history.
Gifts and bequests to the college were numerous
and generous under President Seelye's administra-
tion more numerous and generous some years than
234 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
in any other year of its history. Thus in 1882 he
enumerates eight or ten gifts, bequests, and promis-
sory notes, some large and some small, amount-
ing in all to $270,000, which the college had re-
ceived during the past six months; and in 1884
nearly as many more actual payments, amounting to
$150,000. The sum total of donations and bequests
during the administration of President Seelye ex-
ceeded even that of President Stearns and amounted
to more than $800,000.*
Meanwhile the college grounds were enlarged
without expense to the college, by the purchase of
several acres on its eastern front, and graded and laid
out in walks and drives and building sites according
to a plan furnished by Mr. F. L. Olmsted, which
gives the whole campus a beauty corresponding with
the unsurpassed beauty of its surroundings.
All this extension of grounds, enlargement of
buildings, and increase of funds was only the shadow
and shell of a corresponding growth in the faculty,
the curriculum, the course of instruction, and the
general administration. " Education," says the presi-
dent in his annual report to the trustees in 1886, "is
not by buildings, or apparatus, or books, but by the
living teacher, and he can do only a small part of
his work upon classes, but must be brought closely
into contact with individual pupils. This involves
small sections and therefore, with a large number of
students, many teachers. To increase our number
of teachers, even faster than our number of students
1 At the close of this volume a more detailed statement may
be found.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 235
has increased, 1 has been of late what I have no doubt
is the wise policy of the college. Ten years ago,
when I entered upon the presidency, the faculty num-
bered seventeen members; now they are twenty-six.
The professorships of German, biology, and logic,
the associate professorships of mental and moral phil-
osophy, of astronomy, of rhetoric, and of Latin, have
all been established in the last decade. Ten years
ago we had four teachers in Latin and Greek ; now we
have six. Ten years ago there were but two teachers
in the English department; now there are three.
There were then but three teachers in the depart-
ments of mathematics, physics, and astronomy; now
there are four. Three teachers then gave all the in-
struction in the natural sciences, where four are now
employed. A new teacher has been added in phil-
osophy, and also one in political economy. This
increase in the number of teachers has permitted a
larger subdivision of the classes, and has made possi-
ble a great increase in elective studies. Ten years
ago hardly any optional work could be taken, while
now the major part of the studies for junior and
senior years are elective. And yet we are making
haste slowly with these elective studies. We insist
that a student shall not be encouraged to make his
college course professional. Breadth and not atten-
uated length is what we are endeavoring to secure."
The president's care for the health and efficiency
of his faculty and his supreme reliance on them as
1 In 1888 he reports the average number of students for the
last twelve years as 339, while the average for the previous
twelve years was 267 quite an increase, but not a percentage
of increase equal to that in the number of teachers.
236 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the strength of the college are emphasized by fre-
quent appeals for increased salaries, and repeated
recommendations of a rule whereby, after seven years
of able and faithful service, every professor should
be allowed a year's absence on half salary for rest or
improvement by travel and study. Such a rule has
never been formally enacted in Amherst College.
But the same result has been secured, in part at least,
by the readiness of the trustees to grant such leave
of absence, when it is asked ; and many of the pro-
fessors have gained a new lease of life and health,
and new resources for teaching, by a year or part of
a year of absence.
The great increase of elective studies above men-
tioned was only one of a series or succession of chang-
es gradually introduced under this administration, all
tending towards a larger liberty among the students,
a happier relation and heartier cooperation between
them and the faculty, and a larger measure of self-
government and self-education in every department
of the college. Thus students were admitted to col-
lege without examination on certificates from such
preparatory schools as had proved themselves worthy
of such confidence by sending us such students, and
only such, as were well prepared. And the process
of sifting out the unworthy and incompetent was
carried on through the first term and the first year
under the eyes of the faculty themselves, and by the
hands of those who had the immediate instruction
and government of the freshman class. This was
felt to be due both to the preparatory schools and the
college, just and fair to the candidates, and it was
found to be satisfactory in its results to all concerned.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 237
A corresponding change was made in the examina-
tions of the college course. Amherst had already led
the way in dispensing with biennials and senior ex-
aminations in the whole curriculum, which all the
colleges now know to have been a sham and a plague.
And now she introduced the system of " examination
reviews," that is, a review, say, once in every two
or three weeks, on a particular subject or part of a
subject as the case may be, with the understanding
that the review is also to be marked as an examina-
tion, to be followed, at the discretion of the professor,
by an examination of some kind on the work of the
term. For example, in the study of Homer, at the
completion of a book, we would have an examination
review of the book, and at the close of the term, per-
haps, a written examination or reading at sight of
the work of the term. This practice gave rise to the
rumor, which went abroad, that Amherst had given
up all examinations, whereas the method in fact se-
cured the maximum of the benefits of frequent ex-
aminations and reviews with the minimum of cram-
ming, cribbing, and mere memorizing which are
ordinarily attendant upon examinations.
A change in the marking system accompanied the
change in regard to examinations. Some of the
teachers had been accustomed to mark every recita-
tion, while others had marked no recitations. It now
became the rule to mark examination reviews and
not recitations. And instead of attempting to fix
the rank of every individual student by minute divi-
sions on a scale of a hundred as formerly, five grades
of scholarship were established and degrees were
conferred upon the graduating classes according to
238 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
their grades. If a student was found to be in the
first or lowest grade, he was not considered as a can-
didate for a degree, though he might receive a cer-
tificate stating the facts in regard to his standing; if
he appeared in the second grade the degree of A.B.
was conferred upon him rite; if in the third, cum laude;
if in the fourth, magna cum laude; while if he reached
the fifth grade he received the degree summa cum
laude. The advantages of this course, as stated to the
trustees by the president, are that it properly dis-
criminates between those who, though passing over
the same course of study, have done it with great
differences of merit and of scholarship, and that it
furnishes a healthy incentive to the best work with-
out exciting an excessive spirit of emulation.
The new system of administration, of which the
above is a part, is so original and peculiar that it is
known as the Amherst System, and, in justice to
President Seelye, who is its author, we state the system
and the reasons for its introduction in his own words.
In his annual report to the trustees in 1881 he says:
" The year has been marked by some significant
changes. At its beginning I proposed to the faculty
a new scheme of college administration to obviate
some difficulties long apparent in the relations of
faculty and students. These difficulties have been
largely due, I judge, to the fact that the system of
college administration in our country remains essen-
tially the same as it was a hundred and fifty years
ago, while during this time the age of our students
has been slowly but steadily advancing until it aver-
ages now some three or perhaps four years more than
it did a century and a half since. The college, as
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 239
originally established and as subsequently continued,
stood, in theory, as in loco parentis to the student, but
the student was considered not as a youthful son to
be brought into confidential and affectionate com-
munion with his parent, but as a child, probably
wayward and certainly incapable of self-direction,
and to be guided and restrained by the constant con-
trol of parental authority. This was probably very
well suited to a condition and time when, as was true
in some of our prominent colleges, a student could
graduate having completed the whole course at thir-
teen, and when a salutary discipline was found in
corporal punishment ; but it is a very untoward sys-
tem to maintain over a body of young men old enough
to possess the rights and incur the obligations of self-
government. Scores of our students are legal voters
in our civil elections. Having had for some time a
growing conviction that this system of college man-
agement needed now some radical modifications, it
seemed best to make a trial of these. The first aim
was the point of view from which the relations of
the faculty and the students could be correctly ap-
prehended. It was quite clear that these relations had
ceased to be those of parent and child. They were
more nearly those of older and younger brothers, in
which the older is a helper and guide to the younger,
and controls him through his own acceptance of rules
which he sees to be right rather than his submission
to authority in matters whose Tightness he does not
see. Rules are, of course, indispensable, but it makes
a wide difference whether these rules come as an
enactment which the authority of the faculty is to
maintain, or whether they shall be accepted by the
240 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
student in an agreement which his own free choice
is interested to fulfil. The attempt was therefore
made to formulate a system of administrative rules
which should simply express what every student
would recognize as true and obligatory, and whose
force in constraining reluctant wills should lie not in
any punishment inflicted by the faculty, but in what a
student should see from the nature of the case if these
rules should be disregarded. ... It would certainly
be better for the student at the age he has now
reached, and in the immediate preparation he is mak-
ing for the responsibilities of manhood, if he could
be led to feel the necessity of self-government. It
would be better also for the faculty to feel that their
influence over the student was not to be supported
by any machinery or outward appliances, but could
only be maintained by their own power of individual
inspiration.
" The system after having been thoroughly consid-
ered received the hearty approval of the faculty, and
was unanimously adopted. . . . The result has been
better than any one ventured to anticipate. It is, I
believe, the unanimous conviction of the faculty that
they have never known a year when so much honest
work has been done in the college, and with so
healthy results, as in the year now closed. The at-
tendance upon college exercises has surprised us all.
It was a part of the system that excuses for absence
from recitations or lectures should no longer be ren-
dered. The students were informed that absences
from these exercises, whatever their cause, are ab-
sences all the same, indicative of a certain lack in
the work regularly and properly required, which ex-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 24!
cuses, however justifiable, could not change in the
least, and for which, therefore, they were wholly ir-
relevant. The college prescribing a certain course of
study and giving a certain diploma at its close, it was
said to the students that this diploma should obviously
express nothing more and nothing less than the exact
facts in the case, and therefore, if the course prescribed
had not been fairly and fully followed, it would be
wrong to give a diploma testifying to the contrary.
" Lest the system should seem too rigorous or too
little flexible, it was deemed best to allow a certain
latitude of absences which a student might take
without interfering with his standing, and this was
fixed at one-tenth of the whole number of exercises
in a given department for a given term. The result
of this was in one point somewhat unexpected and
not altogether satisfactory. It was found that the
students were very economical in the use of these
absences, carefully avoiding in some cases the least
expenditure of them till the close of the term, when
in many instances they took them all together, thus re-
ducing the length of their term by so much as the per-
mission would allow. The faculty felt that, undesir-
able as this was, it was the less of two evils, and that,
if a student were to take his absences at all, it would
be better for him to do this in a lump than to string
them along at irregular times during the term. The
students have been told upon this point that the
faculty, though giving this limited latitude of ab-
sences, deem it unwise for the student to take it in
any case when it can be avoided, and that they will
take pains that their instruction shall be as valuable
at the end as during any part* of the term. During
242 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the term just ended the attendance continued much
better to the close than during either of the two
preceding terms."
The rules of administration under this system are
few and simple, in striking contrast with the in-
numerable specifications of transgressions and pen-
alties in the " College Laws" of former days, and are
substantially contained in this single paragraph : " A
student whose recommendations have been approved
and whose examinations have shown him capable of
admission to Amherst College, is received as a gen-
tleman, and, as such, is trusted to conduct himself in
truthfulness and uprightness, in kindness and re-
spect, in diligence and sobriety, in obedience to law
and maintenance of order and regard for Christian
institutions as becomes a member of a Christian col-
lege. The privileges of the college are granted only
to those who are believed to be worthy of this trust,
and are forfeited whenever this trust is falsified.
" On his admission the student signs a promise so
to conduct himself, and, failing to do so, thereby
breaks his contract and severs himself from his con-
nection with the college. In deciding the question
whether students have thus broken their contract
and severed themselves from the college, the faculty
judged it wise to associate with themselves, in the
immediate government of the college, a body chosen
by the students themselves, to which questions of
college order and decorum are referred, and whose
decisions, if approved by the president, are binding
on the college. This body is called the College Sen-
ate, and consists of four seniors, three juniors, two
sophomores, and one -freshman, chosen by their re-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 243
spective classes. 1 At the meetings of the senate,
which are held regularly once a month, the president
of the college presides. This movement towards self-
government has been thus far justified by its results."
So said the faculty in the annual catalogue issued
at the close of the first year after its introduction.
And the same verdict is repeated in every annual
catalogue from that year to the present time. In his
annual report for 1882, President Seelye says: "The
results of the new system of administration, of which
I made a detailed report to the trustees one year ago,
have been, during the year now closing, most satis-
factory. The faculty recently made a careful exam-
ination of these results and were unanimous in their
judgment that the workings of the system have been
favorable both as respects the regularity of attendance
and the standard of scholarship. The system has
attracted a wide attention, and we find that some
colleges, by which it was at first sharply criticised,
are beginning to adopt some of its more important
features."
The next year he speaks still more positively and
particularly of the results of the system in Amherst,
and its adoption in some of its features by other
colleges : " The demeanor of the students has been
well-nigh unexceptionable. We have had no hazing,
none of the old-time college pranks or disturbances,
none of the unseemly disorders in the village which
have sometimes prevailed with us and are not infre-
1 This feature of the " Amherst System" has been suspended
by the resignation of the members of the Senate. It is be-
lieved, however, that sooner or later it will be restored, not as
an essential but a desirable part of the system.
244 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
quent in college towns. Our students have done their
work during the year with remarkable diligence and
decorum. The new system of administration meets,
after the third year of its trial, the same favor among
the faculty and the students which has been accorded
it from the first. We all feel that it has greatly pro-
moted kindliness of feeling and of intercourse be-
tween the faculty and the students and among the
students themselves, that it has raised the standard
of manliness and manly conduct through the college,
that the grade of scholarship and the regularity of
attendance have both been increased, and that there
has been a manifest uplifting of the whole tone of
the college. We do not regard the system as any
longer an experiment."
It is quite unnecessary that the writer should add
his testimony to that of the president. His report is
aot merely the partial attestation of the author of the
system to the work of his own hands ; it is the unani-
mous verdict of all the faculty and all the students.
I have never yet seen the teacher or the student who
would wish to return to the old system. The new
system is imperfect, of course, like all the works of
men. It admits of, and doubtless will receive, modi-
fication and improvement as the result of longer ex-
perience. It needs careful watching and wisdom in
its execution. But the old system of permits and
penalties, of excuses and evasions, of government
without representation, of stepmotherly prohibitions
and stepfatherly punishments, of mutual distrust and
suspicion, of separate interests and hostile plans and
purposes, has gone in Amherst, and has gone or is
going in other colleges, never to return. The day
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 245
of common interests and mutual confidence and
hearty cooperation, the day of representation of the
alumni in the Board of Trustees, and of under-
graduates in the faculty, the day of larger liberty
and more self-government, the day of elective studies
and manly development and practical preparation for
the duties of citizenship under free institutions, has
come in Amherst and is coming coming to stay in
all our colleges, and we may thank President Seelye
for hastening its dawn. The faculty of Amherst
never did a wiser thing than when, early in his ad-
ministration, they committed the immediate govern-
ment of the college largely, we might almost say
entirely, into his hands. He took council with his
faculty, considered their wishes, and profited by their
wisdom and experience. He associated a represen-
tative body of the students with himself in deciding
questions of college order, deportment, and decorum.
But he held the reins in his own hands, and his ad-
ministration proved or illustrated two maxims in the
science of government: that executive government
is best administered by one head, and that that gov-
ernment is best which governs the least. Radical as
the changes were which he introduced, he ruled with
great moderation, and great peace and prosperity
were the results to the college. Gentleness tempered
by firmness characterized his administration and
shaped it to suit the character of individual students.
His patience saved many a wayward student, his gen-
tleness made many an unpromising student good and
great. His firmness never feared or hesitated, when it
became necessary to say to the individual student or
the whole college, Thus far shalt thou go and no far-
246 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ther. He knew every student personally, recognized
him wherever he met him, and called him by name,
in most cases by his Christian name, as if he were a
younger brother. Socratic in his method of teach-
ing, he was Socratic also in his personal influence
and his strong personal hold on young men. This
took a good deal of time, but it was time well spent.
His time belonged to the college, and was given
without sparing and without grudging to the service
of the faculty and the students. He made it a rule
never to be out of town in term time unless he was
constrained to be absent by manifest duty or impera-
tive necessity. He taught less and less in the class-
room. When he entered upon the presidential office,
he insisted on retaining the professorship of philoso-
phy as a proper adjunct of the presidency and a
channel of the greatest and best educational influ-
ence. But experience taught him that the work of
this most important professorship and the burdens of
the presidency of a modern college, and the duties
of the office as he understood them, were more than
any one man could carry, and when he found a man
after his own heart to teach philosophy he first trans-
ferred to him one-half of the senior class, alternating
the divisions with him every other day, and then
handed over to him the instruction of the whole class
and the responsibility of the department. This left
him only the " question box" one hour every week,
an exercise which he continued as long as he con-
tinued to be president, teaching the class how to ask
questions as well as how to answer them, and dis-
cussing with them subjects of the greatest moment
in literature, science, and art, in politics, ethics, and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 247
religion, with so much learning and power that,
through the week, they looked forward to that hour
with an interest which attended no other college ex-
ercise. His knowledge of books was as wide and
profound as his knowledge of men and things. It
was said of the old Greek philosopher Carneades, that
he could repeat from memory the contents of any
book in the libraries as accurately and freely as if he
were reading from the book itself. Very similar to
this was the confidence which faculty and students
reposed in President Seelye 's knowledge of books.
But he made very little direct use of books, in teach-
ing. He first absorbed the books, text-books, and
books of illustration, into himself, and then impressed
himself upon his pupils. In Raphael's School of
Athens, a knot of youthful philosophers had sent one
of their number for a book ; but meanwhile Socrates
had solved the question, and now we see them wav-
ing away the returning messenger, and pointing to
Socrates, as much as to say, Behold, he is the book!
At the time of his election to the presidency, Dr.
Seelye had a strong desire to write books on some
parts of church history and philosophy which had
not been treated to his satisfaction, and this was one
reason why he hesitated about accepting the presi-
dency. But he sacrificed this very natural and worthy
ambition. He accepted the presidency and devoted
his life to the work of an educator. Like the great
Athenian philosopher and educator, he wrote his
books in the minds and hearts, the characters and
lives, of his students, where they will live forever.
Dr. Seelye had translated and published Schweg-
ler's " History of Philosophy" while he was pastor of
17
248 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
the church in Schenectady. He revised and edited
Hickok's "Mental Science" and "Moral Science"
while he was professor, and rewrote the " Moral
Science" during his presidency. That remarkable
little volume, " The Way, the Truth, and the Life-
Lectures to Educated Hindus," which, within the
compass of a hundred pages, contains so much of the
sum and substance of the Gospel, and not the evidence
only but the very essence of Christianity, was written
at Bombay after the lectures were delivered, at the
request of those who heard them, and issued from
the press in Bombay at the expense of one who was
himself an eminent Brahmin scholar. This was in
1873, two or three years prior to his entrance upon
the presidential office. This was followed, soon after
his return from India, by another "small book on
a great subject," " Christian Missions," which was first
delivered as lectures in several of our principal theo-
logical seminaries, and then printed in a volume.
His speeches in Congress were always listened to
with marked attention and profound respect, although
they were too independent of party always to com-
mand the majority of votes. He usually acted with
the Republicans, but in the famous contested elec-
tion he stood almost alone in the Republican ranks
in voting against seating Mr. Hayes in the presiden-
tial chair. As a member of the Committee on Indian
Affairs he was a stalwart champion of Indian rights,
and his speeches on this subject adorn the congres-
sional records. His occasional addresses, such as his
election sermon before the governor, council, and
legislature of Massachusetts, his sermon before the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 249
sions at Minneapolis, his annual address as president
for several years of the American Home Missionary
Society, and his baccalaureate sermons were printed
and published in various forms, and deserve to be
reprinted for their permanent value as profound dis-
cussions of the great principles which underlie gov-
ernment, society, education, and religion. The same
may be said of the numerous articles which he was
in the habit of writing during his whole life for the
reviews, magazines, and newspapers on the great
questions of the times, such, for example, as these:
"The Electoral Commission," "Counting the Elec-
toral Votes," "The Moral Character in Politics,"
" The Need of a Better Political Education," " Dyna-
mite as a Factor in Civilization," "The Gospel to be
Preached First in Our Great Cities," "The Currency
Question," "Christian Union," "Should the State
Teach Religion?" "The Sabbath Question," "The
Bible in Schools," "Prohibitory Laws and Personal
Liberty," "Punishment, its Meaning and Ground,"
"The Recognition of God in the Constitution,"
"Growth through Obedience," "Our Place in His-
tory." These and the like vital questions always
interested him profoundly, and he always discussed
them, whether with the tongue or the pen, in the
threefold light of universal history, a profound spirit-
ual philosophy, and an earnest, enlightened, evangeli-
cal Christianity. And he was usually inclined in
theory and in practice to adopt the most advanced,
the broadest and deepest, the most profoundly spirit-
ual and intensely evangelical views of these great
questions, so much so that he sometimes seemed to
be unpractical, and by some persons was thought an
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
extremist, although he retained the confidence of his
fellow Christians in practical matters so fully that
they placed him at the head of their great missionary
agencies, and when they wished to formulate a new
creed for the denomination in which they could all
unite, he was made chairman of the " Creed Com-
mission/' and is understood to have drafted the form.
Plato has the reputation of being an extremist
and is doubtless open to the charge of carrying
his political and ethical philosophy to extravagant
lengths. President Seelye was a philosopher of the
Platonic school, and his doctrines, his sentiments,
his style even is shaped, colored, tinged at least by
that of Plato. But he called no man master. He
could say with Aristotle, and even more justly than
he: Amicus Socrates, amicus Plato, magis tamen arnica
veritas; and to President Seelye, Jesus Christ was
emphatically and alone the Truth, the Way, and the
Life.
We were accustomed to speak and to think of Dr.
Seelye through all his earlier life as the healthiest,
heartiest, strongest, most robust man in the faculty,
the very ideal of a large, strong, healthy man in
every particular, physically, intellectually, morally,
and spiritually. On the 5th of March, 1881, Mrs.
Seelye was taken from him, and he never seemed to
recover fully from the shock. A part of himself was
taken up to the better world, and so tender was the
tie, so indissoluble the union, so perfect the oneness
of the present with the future life, that he could
never think of marrying again.
In the winter of 1885 he was himself sick with a
severe attack of erysipelas which brought him to the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 251
very borders of the grave. Subsequently to this, a
disease of the nervous system, largely hereditary,
and partly the result of overwork, care, and responsi-
bility, gradually developed itself, increasing slowly
from year to year till at length it interfered not only
with his comfort but his ability to discharge the
duties of his office. He consulted the ablest physi-
cians in his own country ; he went abroad twice for
medical advice and rest and change, but to no pur-
pose, till at length his friends and the friends of the
college yielded reluctantly to his conviction of the
necessities of the case, and he tendered his resigna-
tion. The college ought to have had the service of
at least four more of the best years of his life before
reaching the limit of threescore years and ten. But
he bowed serenely, cheerfully to the will of God,
cooperated heartily with the trustees in the selection
and inauguration of his successor, and placed the
keys of the college in his hands with those noble
words: "Truth and freedom truth coming from
whatever direction and freedom knowing no bounds
but those the truth has set have ever been the light
and the life of this college, and we do not doubt, from
your work and worth, from your open eye and open
heart, that they will continue to be the glory and the
strength of your entire administration. " The present
administration inherits the good will and the bene-
diction of that which preceded it, and may the bless-
ing go down through many generations of wise and
good presidents, the worthy heirs to such an inherit-
ance, till time shall be no more.
CHAPTER XII.
ATHLETICS GYMNASIUM EXERCISES AND " THE DOCTOR"
INTERCOLLEGIATE GAMES COLLEGE SOCIETIES
THE GREEK-LETTER FRATERNITIES.
THE college is indebted to President Stearns, as
we have seen in the chapter on his administration,
for the introduction of the system of gymnastics and
physical education for which it has since become so
highly distinguished, and for the erection of the
Barrett gymnasium by which it was in his day so
well and worthily represented. But the department
of hygiene and physical culture has since had a
growth and development, of which no one at that
time could have had a conception, and which is fitly
represented by the Pratt gymnasium and the Pratt
field of athletics, the Pratt gymnasium having cost
over $60,000, the Pratt field more than $35,000, and
the whole plant of the department, including build-
ings, grounds, apparatus and endowments, mounting
up to the magnificent sum of $i77,ooo. 1
The Amherst system of required exercise in the
gymnasium of all the classes, half an hour daily four
days in a week, under the direction and control of an
experienced physician, has been maintained substan-
tially as it was instituted in 1860, with only such
1 This includes the Parmly Billings professorship of $50,000,
founded by Hon. Frederick Billings in memory of his son.
252
OF THE
[UNIVERSITY,
AMHERST COLLEGE ATHLETIC GROUNDS.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 253
changes as the wisdom and experience, let me rather
say the tact and genius, of Dr. Edward Hitchcock
have devised, and the growing pecuniary resources
of the department have enabled him to accomplish,
for its enlargement and improvement from year to
year. With all the extension and multiplication of
optional studies, these exercises have never been
made elective. If anything is "compulsory" in
Amherst, it is the gymnastic exercise just as much
so as attendance on any lectures or recitations, quite
as '* compulsory" as morning prayers or church ser-
vices, and not less imperative, unless excused by the
professor in special cases, than breakfast, dinner,
and supper. During the fall and winter terms and
a part of the spring term, every class is obliged, four
days in a week, to go through a dumb-bell drill
that was learned at the beginning of the course. 1
Being done with piano accompaniment, these exer-
cises are not monotonous, especially as no two of
them are alike, and as each is composed of a large
variety of movements. Every spring there is held
in the gymnasium a prize exhibition, at which the
three lower classes compete in marching and dumb-
bell drilling, for a prize. This causes the class ex-
ercises to be conducted during the last part of the
winter with a marked degree of energy, steadiness,
and punctuality. The principal interest has been
created by the rivalry between the classes, especially
the junior and sophomore, to have the larger number
of points and win the prize of $100. In addition to
1 For some of these details, I am indebted to a magazine ar-
ticle recently published with the approval of the Department.
254 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
these class exercises, the department stimulates an in-
terest in athletics by holding every fall an out-of-door
athletic meet and every winter a heavy gymnastic
exercise. At both events the individual prize-win-
ners are given medals, and the class scoring the
largest number of points at the former receives a
barrel of cider, which is disposed of with many cere-
monies, and at the latter has its numerals placed on
one of the banners hanging on the walls of the gym-
nasium. Does not the success of these contests
among our own students prove the practicability of
finding at home exercise and recreation that are al-
together wholesome and sufficiently exciting, and
yet free from the temptations and dangers, the ex-
penses and excesses that are inseparable from inter-
collegiate games and the visits of masses of college
students to other colleges and our large cities?
But these intercollegiate games are just now all
the fashion and the passion of the times, and Am-
herst is swept along with the tide. For a short time,
from 1869 to 1875, the boating "craze" prevailed,
and in 1872 the Amherstcrew won the intercollegiate
race over a three-mile course at Springfield against
the crews of Harvard, the Massachusetts Agricul-
tural College, Bowdoin, Williams, and Yale. But
the distance of the college from the river forbade
the necessary practice, gradually damped the ardor
of the crew, and after a few years they withdrew
from the contests.
Since 1875 the chief interest has centred in the
intercollegiate ball games, baseball in the spring
and early summer, and football in the autumn.
Amherst has played with each of the New England
OF THE
^UNIVERSITY
OF
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 255
colleges, belonged to different leagues, and con-
tended with varying alternations of successes and re-
verses, sometimes, though rarely, defeating Harvard
and Yale, bearing off her full share of honors in her
contests with other colleges, and generally, I be-
lieve, though not without some exceptions, sustaining
a good reputation with the public, not only as ath-
letes but as gentlemen. Amherst is a member of
the American Intercollegiate Athletic Association,
at the meeting of which in 1890 her representatives
took two first prizes and one second, and also of the
New England Association, in which Amherst won the
championship in 1888 and 1890. It is only quite
recently that she has entered the lists in lawn ten-
nis, and she has not gained distinction in that line,
although one of her sons, Mr. C. A. Chase, as the
result of his practice in Amherst, has, since his
graduation, won several trophies, including that of
the championship of the West.
The effect of the system of physical education on
the health, strength and general appearance of the
students is proved by the physical tests and actual
measurements of the department, and indeed it is
visible and palpable to the senses of the casual ob-
server. Statistics kept by the department for the
last thirty years show a sensible diminution in the
percentage of sickness and deaths, and a palpable
increase in the average strength of students as meas-
ured by the most approved strength-tests. And
any one who has been familiarly acquainted with the
college for half a century cannot but be struck with
the manifest improvement in \hz physique of the stu-
dents. I cannot accept without many grains of al-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
lowance the graphic characterization of the typical
college student of the last generation by President
Walker, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
in his oration before the Phi Beta Kappa society of
Harvard University at a recent commencement.
"The college hero of those days," he says, "was
apt to be a young man of towering forehead, from
which the hair was carefully brushed backwards and
upwards to give the full effect to his remarkable
phrenological development. His cheeks were pale ;
his digestion pretty certain to be bad. He was self-
conscious, introspective, and indulged in moods, as
became a child of genius. He had yearnings and
aspirations; and not infrequently mistook physical
lassitude for intellectuality, and the gnawings of dys-
pepsia for spiritual cravings. He would have
greatly distrusted his mission and his calling had he
found himself at any time playing ball. He went
through moral crises and mental fermentations which
to him seemed tremendous. From the gloomy re-
cesses of his ill-kept and unventilated room, he peri-
odically came forth to astound his fellow-students
with poor imitations of Coleridge, De Quincey and
Carlyle, or of Goethe in translation."
Now this is, of course, overdrawn and exagger-
ated. If the orator did not intend to exaggerate
when he wrote it, he would probably acknowledge
now that it was at least high colored. It savors of
that rhetoric or fine writing which he so much dis-
parages and decries as " the be-all and end-all of
the college training of those days," but which, in
its legitimate use and best form, so highly adorns
this oration. It is drawn, we must think, less from
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 257
memory than from imagination, which, quite as
much as memory, is "the mother of the Muses," the
maker of science as well as literature and art, and
without which General Walker himself could not
have made such a splendid success of the institute
over which he presides. But we fully agree with
him when he says that the improvement wrought in
the physique of our college students by the introduc-
tion of gymnastic exercises does not need to be
shown statistically: it is manifest to the eye of the
most casual observer. And we heartily approve of
the strong plea which he makes in behalf of a well-
regulated system of physical education in our col-
leges, while we admire his wise and discriminating
suggestions in regard to the regulation, restriction,
improvement, and perfection of intercollegiate ath-
letics. I agree entirely with President Walker,
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, when
he says that college athletics wonderfully light up
the life of our people ; that they stimulate an inter-
est in gymnastics among those students who do not
engage in competitive contests, and also throughout
the general community ; that they call for more than
mere strength and swiftness they demand also
courage, coolness, steadiness of nerve, quickness of
apprehension, resourcefulness, self-knowledge, self-
reliance, ability to work with others, power of
combination, co-operation, obedience to orders,
subordination of selfish impulses, and something
akin to patriotism and public spirit. And as an
indispensable means for the attainment of these
ends, he urges that regard for fair play, that respect
for the rights of an opponent, that deference to the
258 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
decisions of the umpire, which are so conspicuous in
English athletics; the complete abolition of the un-
sportsmanlike system of organized cheering by great
bodies of collegians grouped together for the pur-
pose ; the training of audiences as well as students to
appreciate the finer points, to applaud good work by
whomsoever done, and to be as virtuous as a Greek
chorus, and the cooperation of alumni to give wis-
dom, weight and temper to the action of undergrad-
uates; and last, not least, perhaps hardest of all, the
education of faculties to avoid petty dictation on the
one hand, and to sustain the claims of scholarship
and enforce the right discipline of college on the
other.
A good step toward the realization of these ideals
in Amherst was taken in 1870, when the Amherst
athletic board was organized, consisting of three
members of the faculty, one of whom shall be the
professor of hygiene and physical education, three
alumni of the college, Mr. F. B. Pratt, donor of the
new field, and three undergraduates namely, the
presidents of the baseball, football and athletic
associations. Recently, delegates from various
football associations have been in session to revise
the rules of that game and provide remedies and
checks against some of its worst and most brutal
features, and to make it less dangerous without mak-
ing it less lively and interesting. Meanwhile the
newspaper press is crying aloud for reform. And
the president of our oldest and greatest university,
while testifying to the advantages which have re-
sulted from the great development of athletic sports
within the past twenty-five years, protests against
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 259
the overtraining and overstraining, the danger of
serious bodily injuries, the extravagant expenditure
of time and money, the excessive excitement of in-
terest and feeling, and the morbid craving for popu-
lar applause and perchance pecuniary profit, which
are attendant especially upon the intercollegiate
football games at the present time, and suggests sev-
eral changes which would at least diminish the ex-
isting evils, such for example as these: that there
should be no freshman intercollegiate matches; no
games to be played on any but college fields, be-
longing to one of the competitors, in college towns;
no professional student or player should take part in
any intercollegiate contests; no football to be played
until the rules are so amended as to diminish the
number and the violence of the collisions between
the players and to provide for the enforcement of the
rules; and intercollegiate contests in anyone sport
should not take place oftener than every other year.
If some such changes as these could, with one con-
sent, be introduced, it would seem that the evils at-
tendant upon the games might be avoided without
abolishing the games themselves. And thus at
length the ideal which President Walker suggests
in concluding his oration might perhaps be realized,
art may be elevated to a far higher and nobler
place than it has hitherto reached in the thoughts
and affections of our people, and the vision of the
Apollo may rise to the view of thousands in this
fair land as once erst it rose before the thronging
multitudes of Olympia.
The history of physical education in Amherst can-
not be written without reference to the man who has
260 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
been the making of it from the beginning, and who,
thanks to the kind Providence that has preserved
him through all these years, is still the head and
front, the spirit and soul and body of the depart-
ment. Amherst graduates cannot think of their col-
lege gymnastics and athletics without being re-
minded of Dr. Hitchcock; gymnastics without him
would be like Hamlet's play with Hamlet's part left
out. Dr. Hitchcock is at once the mainspring and
the regulator of the class exercises. Dr. Hitchcock
takes the gauge of every individual student and
tells him how to secure a sound mind in a sound body.
Dr. Hitchcock, by his measurements, has contributed
largely toward making gymnastics a science and an
art. Dr. Hitchcock, by his personal presence at in-
tercollegiate games, has done much to guard the
health and life of the players, the morals and man-
ners of all our students. Is any one sick, he sends
for " the Doctor. " Does any one sham sickness, " the
Doctor " is sure to find him out. Is any one morbid
or morally diseased, " the Doctor" can furnish the
diagnosis and prescribe the remedy. Is the college
in a disorderly or unhealthy state, socially or spirit-
ually, no one is so sure to know it or so wise to cure
it as " the Doctor. " u The Doctor's" eye and hand are
on every wheel and band and cog of the college ma-
chine, to keep it in place and in motion and perform-
ing its proper part. " The Doctor" there is only
one " Doctor" (" Doc" for short) in the vocabulary
of Amherst students " the Doctor" is always pres-
ent at morning prayers and the weekly prayer meet-
ing, and no one takes part, his own or perchance
another's, in these services more happily or more ac-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 26 1
ceptably than he. No member of the faculty is
invited so frequently to local alumni associations.
No one is welcomed so heartily, no one is seen or
heard with so much pleasure, no one anywhere can
make a more apt, pat, witty, or happy after-dinner
speech than Dr. Hitchcock. In short, "the Doctor"
is an omnipresent spirit of health and life, of cheer-
fulness and happiness, of good sense and good will,
of all that is good and gracious in every place and
everything that concerns the college with which he
has so long been connected. Long live Dr. Hitch-
cock ! O king, live forever !
The history of -our college societies during the first
half century of the institution is written in the
first edition of this history, in President Hitch-
cock's " Reminiscences of Amherst College," and
still more fully in Mr. Cutting's " Student Life in
Amherst," and those who wish to read it in detail
must go to those sources. But these societies have
had such a development and attained such promi-
nence and influence during the last twenty years,
that I cannot conclude this history without a brief
sketch of their growth and progress.
The two literary societies, Alexandria and Athe-
nae, which, from the very beginning, divided the stu-
dents almost equally between them and exerted an
influence on the taste and style of writing and speak-
ing of their members scarcely second to that of the
professors, and which, I ventured to hope, would live
as long as the college itself, have not realized that
hope. They have become extinct ; their libraries in
which the members took so much pride and pleas-
ure have been merged in the college library, and
262 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
their archives are preserved only in the archives of
the college. The Society of Inquiry also, which,
beginning with the opening term of the college,
counted in the roll of its members the leading min-
isters and missionaries of more than fifty classes, and
provided the commencement with an almost uninter-
rupted succession of annual addresses from distin-
guished orators and divines for more than half a cen-
tury this venerable society still exists and bears the
name of the "Hitchcock Society of Inquiry," but it
has dropped its distinctive character, and become
one of nearly a dozen societies, chiefly Greek letter
societies, for literary culture or general social im-
provement and enjoyment. The Greek letter so-
cieties have increased in number and influence, till
almost all the students belong to them. The fol-
lowing is a list of the names of the fraternities, with
the dates of the Amherst Chapters in the order of
their establishment:
Alpha Delta Phi 1837
Psi Upsilon . . . . . . 1841
Delta Kappa Epsilon ..... 1846
Delta Upsilon 1847
Phi Beta Kappa 1853
Chi Psi 1864
Chi Phi 1873
Beta Theta Pi 1883
Theta Delta Chi 1885
Phi Delta Theta 1888
Phi Gamma Delta 1894
Five of these societies, it will be seen, have been
introduced at Amherst within the last twenty years.
These fraternities are a connecting link between
the colleges and universities of our country, a
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 263
bond of union between the States, and a medium of
mutual acquaintance and intercommunion between
educated and educating men, with many of the ad-
vantages and some of the dangers and evils attendant
upon Masonic lodges and other secret societies.
The chapter houses, which some of them rent and
others own, having bought or built them for them-
selves, draw kindred spirits together, give them a
home in college for which they care and in which
they feel a pleasure and a pride, and exert an influ-
ence at once powerful and salutary in the govern-
ment, education, and social culture of undergraduate
students, while they furnish also a rendezvous and
a hospitable reception to graduates when they re-
visit their alma mater. A band of brothers feeling
a lively interest in the reputation of their chapter
and in the character and conduct of all its members,
by their social gatherings, their literary exercises,
their mutual personal influence, and above all by the
watch and care of the older and wiser over the
younger, less mature, and perhaps less studious
members, they guard the morals, correct the faults,
stimulate the ambition, cultivate the manners and
the taste, elevate the scholarship, in a word form the
character and fashion the life of the membership,
and thus contribute no unimportant element to the
order, decorum, scholarship, and culture of the
whole college. In fact, they act an important part
in that system of self-government and training for
the duties of citizenship in a free country in which
Ainherst is taking the lead among American col-
leges. President Seelye relied much on their co-
operation and influence in his administration. In
18
264 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
his annual report to the trustees in 1887, he says:
" Besides other helps toward the good work of the
college, important service is rendered by the soci-
eties and the society houses. No one now familiar
with the college doubts, so far as I know, the good
secured through the Greek letter societies as found
among us. They are certainly well managed. Their
houses are well kept, and furnish pleasant and not
expensive houses to the students occupying them.
The rivalry among them is wholesome, kept, as it
certainly seems to be, within excessive limits. The
tone of the college is such that loose ways in a soci-
ety or its members will be a reproach, and college
sentiment, so long as it is reputable itself, will keep
them reputable." A distinguished classmate of
President Seelye, the Honorable Wm. G. Ham-
mond, lately chancellor of the law department in
Iowa University, and now dean of the law school in
Washington University, Missouri, in a recent ad-
dress at a convention at Amherst of one of these
societies, suggested the possibility and desirable-
ness of a further development of them into some-
thing like the colleges in the English universities.
Of course, such societies, like everything else in
this imperfect world, are liable to perversion and
abuse. The purest stream may be polluted, and then
it will breed sickness and death instead of life and
health. Like our whole system of self-government,
they need watching, lest they become nurseries of
indolence, ease, pleasure, extravagance, dissipation,
vice, instead of the opposite virtues. Their charac-
ter and influence will depend very much on the char-
acter of the college in which they are established.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 265
In Amherst their influence has been and is unques-
tionably favorable to good morals, order, decorum,
gentlemanly deportment, and scholarly attainments.
Nothing else would be tolerated, if for no other rea-
son, because anything else would be unpopular in
the college, and so fatal to the reputation and pros-
perity of the society. It is not denied that the soci-
eties add somewhat to the expenses of their mem-
bers, but not largely : any large expenditure is extra,
and is provided for by voluntary contributions of
alumni and members that are able to make them.
It is acknowledged that there is in some of the soci-
eties too much fondness for promenades, dances, and
other amusements, especially in the winter term,
the Congregational Lent, which is the most appro-
priate and favorable season for religious interest.
But drinking and carousing are not tolerated in the
society houses ; prayer meetings and pastoral visits
are welcomed, and there is no better place than
these houses for the propagation of religious influ-
ences. It may not be easy to sanctify and appropri-
ate college athletics and college societies and make
the most of the best there is in them, but it is an ob-
ject well worthy of the most patient and persevering
effort, for, if the effort is successful, they will be
among the most potent influences for good in the
college of the future.
CHAPTER XIII.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF AMHERST EARLIER COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES, FOUNDED FROM RELIGIOUS MOTIVES
DECLINE OF RELIGIOUS SPIRIT COLLEGES FOR
EDUCATION OF MINISTERS REVIVALS AT AMHERST
FROM 1823 TO 1853.
OUR readers are familiar with the fact that Har-
vard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, all our older colleges
and universities, were founded by religious men,
from Christian motives, and largely for the educa-
tion of ministers of the Gospel. But in the latter
part of the eighteenth century religion and morality
suffered a sad decline. After the American and
French Revolutions, the dams and dikes seemed to
be swept away, and irreligion, immorality, scepti-
cism, and infidelity came in like a flood. The col-
leges were of course deeply affected by the prevailing
spirit of unbelief and impiety. In Yale College,
only eleven undergraduates are known to have been
professors of religion in 1795 ; about four years later,
the number was reduced to four or five, and at one
communion only a single undergraduate was present.
A graduate of the class of 1783 remembered only
three professors of religion in the class of 1782, and
only three or four in several of the other classes. In
the darkest time, just at the close of the century,
there was only about one church member to a class.
266
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 267
In Harvard College the facts were much the same.
And the state of things in the churches was no better.
A young man who belonged to the church in that
day was a phenomenon almost a miracle.
But in the nineteenth century a new era began in
the religious history of churches and colleges an
era of revivals and conversions, of home and foreign
missions, of active, earnest, and aggressive piety in
ministers and Christians, of prayer for colleges, a
great increase in the number of graduates from the
older colleges entering the ministry and the work
of missions, and the establishment, especially in the
West, of new colleges, we might perhaps say a new
species of Christian colleges, by the united and spon-
taneous efforts of evangelical Christians with more
express reference to a general revival of religion and
the conversion of the world. Amherst was among
the first of these colleges. It was born of the spirit
of revivals and missions. It is not strange, there-
fore, that its religious history has been largely a
history of revivals, and our readers will not think it
strange if revivals constitute the principal theme of
this chapter. A few words, however, must first be
said in regard to the origin of the College Church.
During the first four years, the college attended
church with the people of the village in the old meet-
ing-house, which then stood at the top of the hill
over against the site of the present college building,
very nearly on the spot where the Woods cabinet and
Lawrence observatory are now situated. It was in
1825, shortly after the grant of the charter, that the
first measures were taken for the establishment of
a separate college church. The origin of this move-
268 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ment and the motives of the original members are
thus stated in the church records:
" It having appeared to many of the pious friends
of Amherst College that the existence of a church in
that seminary would tend in a high degree to pro-
mote the great object which its founders and bene-
factors had chiefly in view, viz., to advance the
kingdom of Christ the Redeemer, by training many
pious youths for the gospel ministry ; several of the
students also having expressed their desire to be
formed into a church specially connected with the
college, and the officers of the college having signi-
fied their approbation of such measure, the subject
of founding a church was laid before the trustees at
their special meeting in April, 1825, by the presi-
dent. The trustees, therefore, passed the following
resolutions, viz. : That Rev. Heman Humphrey,
D.D., Rev. Joshua Crosby, and Rev. James Taylor
be a committee to consider the expediency of estab-
lishing a college church in this institution, and
to proceed to form one if they should deem it
expedient.
" The above-named committee assembled at Am-
herst, on the seventh of March. 1826, and after de-
liberation on the subject referred to their wisdom
and discretion, they resolved themselves into an ec-
clesiastical council.
" The council then voted to proceed to form a church
on the principles of the Congregational platform, of
such persons desiring it as should upon examination
be judged by them to be entitled to the privileges of
church membership, and should be able heartily to
assent to the following articles of faith and covenant."
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 269
Then follow the creed and covenant, which are in
substance the same with those of Orthodox Congre-
gational churches generally in New England at that
time.
Thirty-one persons, all students, and members of
each of the four classes, were then " examined by the
council, and having publicly assented to the preced-
ing articles and covenant, after an appropriate ad-
dress by Dr. Humphrey, were solemnly constituted
the Church of Christ in Amherst College. The
Church was then commended in prayer to the cov-
enanted blessings of the one God, the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost."
The style of the church is worthy of notice. Al-
though founded upon the principles of the Congrega-
tional platform, it has never assumed any denomina-
tional name, but has alwa} y s been styled " The Church
of Christ in Amherst College." The form for ad-
mission of members to the church was so changed
under the presidency and pastorate of Dr. Stearns,
that members have since been received on their as-
sent to the Apostles' creed and acceptance of the
doctrines of Christianity as generally held by our
Congregational churches. The covenant remains
unchanged to this day, and Dr. Burroughs introduced
the practice of receiving into covenant and fellowship
with the college church students who wished to com-
mune with us without being dismissed from their
churches at home. Many have thus entered into
covenant with the church, on the basis of letters of
recommendation, without dismission, from Presby-
terian, Baptist, Methodist, and other churches, not
excepting in a few instances even the Catholic
2/0 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
Church. This practice brought them into more in-
timate and responsible relations to one another and
the members of the college church, and made our
communion Sabbaths seasons of wider and deeper
interest.
The church remained almost a year without a pas-
tor, Dr. Humphrey acting meanwhile as permanent
moderator. In February, 1827, after careful con-
sideration and conference with the trustees by com-
mittees, the church, with the full approval of the
trustees and the faculty, resolved that it was ex-
pedient to complete its organization by the election
and installation of a pastor, and by a unanimous vote
they chose Dr. Humphrey their first pastor. The
installation took place on the 24th of February, 1827,
in connection with the dedication of the new college
chapel.
The first revival occurred in the spring term of
1823, about a year and a half after the opening of the
college. The whole } T ear and a half preceding had
been a gradual preparation for it. The religious
students spent whole days in fasting and prayer.
The annual concert of prayer for colleges was held
for the first time in February, 1823. This was ob-
served in the college and was a day of deep and sol-
emn interest. President Moore's address to the stu-
dents on this occasion was peculiarly appropriate and
happy. His appeal to those who thought religion
unmanly and prayer degrading was like a nail
" driven by the master of assemblies." " Was Daniel
ever more noble than when he prayed in defiance of
King Darius' threats? The pious students were
among the most important instruments in carrying
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2/1
forward the work." 1 "They held early morning
prayer meetings, and would sometimes, even in study
hours, go into each others' rooms and spend a few
moments in prayer. At no time in the day perhaps
could a person go into an entry or pass into the
fourth story without hearing the voice of prayer from
some room." *
Prayer meetings were held at nine o'clock in the
evening in each entry, also at other times and in
other places. Inquiry meetings were held by the
officers of the college. At the result of the revival
twenty-three conversions were counted, leaving only
thirteen without a personal faith and hope in Christ. 3
Among the converts in this first revival were, in the
senior class, Rev. David O. Allen, the first missionary
among the Amherst graduates, and Theophilus Pack-
ard, the first president, and for many years, of the
Amherst Alumni Association, and in the junior class
.Rev. Bela B. Edwards, the distinguished professor
of biblical literature in Andover -Theological Semi-
nary, and Rev. Austin Richards, D. D., who received
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dart-
mouth and was for thirty years pastor of the church
in Nashua, N. H. Besides the conversion of the
larger part of the unconverted, nearly one-quarter of
all the members of the college, the influence ex-
tended to those who were not reckoned as converts.
Thus Edward Jones, the colored student of the class
of 1826, who was counted among the unconverted at
the close of the revival, soon after his graduation
1 Manuscript letter of Rev. Theophilus Packard, class of '23.
2 Rev. Justin Marsh, class of '24, manuscript letter.
3 Manuscript letter of Dr. A. Chapin, class of '26.
2/2 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
went out as a missionary to Sierra Leone and became
one of the leading educators of that African state.
A powerful revival existed in the Academy and the
village church, whether as effect or cause I do not
know ; probably it was in part both effect and cause
of the religious interest in the Collegiate Institution.
The next revival, the first under the presidency
and pastorate of Dr. Humphrey, was in 1827, of which
we take the following brief narrative from a com-
munication to the Christian public, under date of
May 15, 1827, by the president himself:
" A year ago the church was partially revived, and
a little cloud seemed for a few days to be hovering
over the seminary, but it soon disappeared. This
year, the last Thursday of February, was observed
in the usual manner as a day of fasting and prayer
for the outpouring of God's Spirit upon colleges.
The following week our new chapel was dedicated,
and a pastor was set over our infant church. Both
these occasions were marked with uncommon inter-
est and solemnity. At length there was a shaking
among the dry bones. The impenitent began to be
serious, to be alarmed, to ask, 'What shall we do to
be saved?' and then to rejoice in hope. By the 2oth
of April, five or six in the freshman class appeared
to have a new song put into their mouths, and from
that time the work advanced with surprising rapidity
and power. Convictions were in general short, and,
in many cases, extremely pungent. Of the thirty in
college who perhaps gave some evidence of faith and
repentance and who are beginning to cherish hope,
twenty at least are supposed to have experienced re-
lief in the space of a single week. 'It is the Lord's
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 273
doings and marvellous in our eyes. ' As this gracious
visitation seemed to demand a public acknowledg-
ment to the great Head of the Church, before we
separated at the close of the term, a religious service
was appointed as the last exercise, and a very appro-
priate and impressive discourse was delivered in the
chapel by the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge, of Hadley."
The following extract from a letter of Rev. A.
Tobey, D.D., of the class of '28, will show the light
in which this revival was viewed by the students :
" The whole college was so influenced, that through
the first of the year it had an entirely different aspect.
Our class, then juniors, was essentially changed in
character. Two who had been decidedly sceptical,
Kidder and Winn, became decided and earnest Chris-
tians. Humphrey, 1 the president's oldest son, had
been altogether irreligious, wild and negligent of all
study, except in the rhetorical department and gen-
eral literature. He became, for the rest of his course,
correct in his conduct, serious and earnest as a Chris-
tian, diligent and faithful as a student. The change
as to interest in religious things was also marked in
other cases, such as Fuller, Hunt, 2 Lothrop, 3 and
Spotswood. 4 Among those who joined the church as
the fruit of this revival were some of the foremost
men of the class.
! Rev. E. P. Humphrey, D.D., professor and president in
Danville Theological Seminary.
2 Rev. Daniel Hunt of Pomfret, Conn.
3 Hon. E. H. Lothrop, Speaker of Michigan House of
Representatives.
4 Rev. J. B. Spotswood, D.D., long pastor of Presbyterian
Church in New Castle, Del.
274 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
"Of the class before us (1827), I suppose McClure, 1
was the most remarkable instance of conversion. I
mean publicly the most remarkable. Perhaps the
conversion of Timothy Dwight, 2 really the first
scholar in his class, may have been as interesting
to those who knew him well. In the class after us
(1829), the most marked and externally wonderful
change was in Henry Lyman, 3 who was afterward
the martyr missionary, with Munson, killed by the
Battahs of Sumatra. Lyman had been one of the
worst, of 'the boldest in wickedness, apparently defy-
ing the authority of God ; but when he came under
the pressure of God's truth and spirit, he became as
ardent and bold for Christ as he had before been in
opposition to all good. "
A very full and interesting narrative of this revival
forms the principal part of one of the chapters in
Prof. Jacob Abbott's " Corner-Stone. "
The next year, viz., during the latter part of the
spring term of 1828, another season of revival was
enjoyed, '* highly interesting (in the language of the
church record, which is in the handwriting of Profes-
sor Fiske), although not so rapid or powerful as that
of 1827. But the Holy Spirit manifestly descended,
and it was supposed that about fourteen members
of college experienced his regenerating influences."
The revival of 1831 occurred in the spring, like all
1 Rev. A. W. McClure, D.D., Secretary of American and
Foreign Christian Union.
2 Timothy Dwight, tutor and missionary, died in 1838.
3 For Mr. Ly man's account of his own conversion and
other incidents of this revival, see his journal and letters in
the memoirs by his sister, Miss Hannah Lyman, principal of
Vassar College.
OF THE
[UNIVERSITY,
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2/5
those which preceded it, but it began earlier in the
term than those of 1827 and 1828. The concert of
prayer for colleges, the last Thursday of February,
prepared the way for it. The sudden sickness and
death of a member of the senior class produced a
deep and solemn impression. The seriousness began
in that class and among its leading members, not a
few of whom were then without hope in Christ.
Deeply convinced of the vanity of the highest worldly
good and of the folly and criminality of an irre-
ligious life, these leading men, one after another, re-
nounced the world and consecrated themselves to the
service of their Redeemer. Thus the influence spread
silently and gradually through and from the senior
class, by a law as natural as that by which water
runs down hill, and flowed through the college. At
the communion in May, seven, and at that in August,
nineteen, members of the college, twenty-six in all,
were gathered into the college church as the fruits
of this rich harvest season. How many joined other
churches I do not know, but, according to my best
recollection, between thirty and forty were reckoned
as converts. The village church was blessed at the
same time with a revival of great power and interest.
In the five years beginning with 1827 and ending
with 1831 there were three revivals. Three years
now succeeded without what is technically called a
revival, although more than once during the interval
the church was revived, and during each of the three
years there were occasional conversions and additions
to the church by confession at almost every com-
munion. At length, in 1835, when no class remain-
ing in college had witnessed one of these favored
OF THE * >,
^UNIVERSITY,
OF
2/6 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
seasons, the institution was again blessed by a copious
outpouring of the Spirit, which was gratefully ac-
knowledged, as was usual in those days, in the rec-
ords of the faculty and of the church, and as the result
of which thirteen were added to the church before
the close of the term, among whom were Clinton
Clark, valedictorian of the class of '35, afterward
tutor; William A. Peabody, salutatorian of the same
class, afterward professor; John Humphrey, George
P. Smith, Alexander H. Bullock, and Daniel W. Poor.
There were revivals also in the spring term of 1839
and in the summer of 1842, this last being the only
one in the whole history of the college which oc-
curred in any other than the spring term.
In his farewell address, which is largely taken up
with the religious history of the college, President
Humphrey says: " Amherst College has been blessed
with seven special revivals of religion. No class has
ever yet graduated without passing through at least
one season of spiritual refreshing. All these revivals
might be called general, as they changed the whole
face of things throughout the college." And in this
connection he gratefully acknowledges his obligation
to the professors, all of whom, with a single excep-
tion, were preachers, for preaching in rotation with
himself on the Sabbath and in the stated evening lec-
tures. "The faculty," he says, "have always felt it
to be no less their duty than their privilege to attend
the stated evening lectures, and after its close they
have made it their practice to retire immediately to
one of their rooms and spend an hour together in
prayer and consultation upon the religious state and
interests of the college. "
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 277
Less than a year after Dr. Hitchcock's accession
to the presidency, during his first winter term, there
was an interesting revival, which brought into the
College Church many members of the two lower
classes, and a few from the junior class; nearly all
the senior class were, already Christians. Among
the additions to the church we cannot but notice the
names of William C. Dickinson, Charles Vinal Spear,
John W. Belcher, William S. Clark, Samuel Fisk,
Francis S. Howe, Thomas Morong, Henry J. Patrick,
and Charles H. Hartwell. And among the means
which were employed, besides plain and pointed
preaching on the Sabbath and at the Thursday even-
ing lecture, there were special services, usually
preaching on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday evenings;
and in this preaching Professor Fiske is remembered
as preaching with overwhelming power, and the more
remembered, because it was his last work, as the
entry in the church records of this addition is the
last of the kind, and indeed, with a single exception,
the last of any kind that is preserved in the hand-
writing of that honored and lamented professor. It
should be added, that President Hitchcock opened
his own house on Monday evenings for a meeting,
partly for inquiry and partly of conference on ques-
tions of practical piety and personal religion, to which
all students were invited, which first filled the study
and at length crowded the large double parlors, and
which had a great influence on the origin and prog-
ress of the religious interest.
In the winter and spring of 1850, there was another
general revival, in which there were over thirty
" hopeful conversions" among the students, and which
278 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
made no small addition to the numbers and the
strength of the church. Including some from the
families of the faculty, there were thirty-three per-
sons who together presented themselves at the altar,
almost filling the broad aisle of the chapel, all in the
bloom of youth, and who now for the first time dedi-
cated themselves by their voluntary consecration to
the service of their Maker, Redeemer and Sanctifier.
The year 1853 is reckoned among our seasons of
spiritual harvest, although the religious interest was
not so deep or so general, nor the ingathering so
abundant as in some other revivals.
And lest the emphasis which we have given to
these seasons of revival should be misinterpreted, it
should be here remarked that the records of the
church show that there were at this period additions
to the church by confession every year and at almost
every communion. Thus at the communion in April,
1849, just about a year before the great revival of
1850, eight persons among the leading scholars and
men of influence in their respective classes, three of
them since distinguished educators in New England,
made a public profession of their faith in Christ. At
the communion next preceding, in February, 1849,
one person, then a member of the sophomore class,
stood up alone and avouched the Lord to be his God
thenceforth and forever. And these sentences from
a letter written in September, 1870, from the shores
of the Mediterranean, show what most impressed
this young man on entering college and what kind
of influences brought him from a wilderness of error
and unbelief into the fold of Christ : " First impres-
sions are lasting. And my first impression of Am-
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 279
herst College has never left me. We (H. and myself)
had come from Ohio by the way of Lake Erie and the
Canal, and seen not a little of rough and profane so-
ciety on the way. What we witnessed on entering
the college was such a contrast to all this and indeed
to all we had been accustomed to in our own previ-
ous observation and experience, that it seemed as if
we had passed into another world. The solemn,
cheerful, and intellectual air of the president and
professors at morning and evening prayers, and the
religious tone, not of voice but of heart and life, in
the majority of the students led me into a new train
of thought, gave me new views, and made me ere
long a new man."
The freshman who was thus led to be a believer
in Christ, the sophomore who thus stood up alone to
declare himself on the Lord's side, is now the presi-
dent of the Syrian College in Beirut, who is leading
on the combined assault of learning and the religion
of Christ Jesus against Mohammedanism in its strong-
holds. In the same letter he adds his testimony also
to the power and genuineness of revivals in Amherst
College. "These revivals," he says, "stamped upon
my mind the conviction that Amherst College be-
lieved in the reality of the religion of Christ. There
was no diminution of the usual amount of study;
hence the excitement for there was great excitement
was rational, the heart and the intellect moved on
together. Twenty years have proven that those
who then embraced the truth were sincere; for they
are found many of them to-day, in various parts of
the world, spending their maturer years in preaching
Christ."
19
CHAPTER XIV.
RELIGIOUS HISTORY CONTINUED SEVEN REVIVALS IN
THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS OF PRESIDENT STEARNS*
ADMINISTRATION IN THE REMAINING YEARS TWO
IN PRESIDENT SEELYE'S TWO CHANGE IN THE
FORM AND MANNER, NOT IN THE -SPIRIT CAUSE
OF THE CHANGE REMEDY.
DURING the first twelve years of Dr. Stearns* presi-
dency there were seven seasons of special religious
interest, thus averaging more than one for every two
years. At no time during this period was there an
interval of more than two years without such a sea-
son, and in one instance two successive years were
thus blessed.
The years 1855, 1857, 1858, 1860, 1862, 1864, and
1866, have usually been reckoned as years of revival,
although there was no very broad line of demarca-
tion between some of these years and some of those
that have not been so reckoned ; for there was not
one of these latter years in which there was not some
quickening in the winter term, and I believe none in
which there were not in the course of the year some
hopeful conversions.
Of the revival in 1855, as of those a few years
earlier, we have the testimony of a college president
in the Levant, who was a member of the senior class
280
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 28 1
at that time. 1 We have space only for a, few sen-
tences:
"We had some noon class meetings which will
never be forgotten by those who attended them, when
we wept and prayed together until it seemed we were
bound together by such cords of love and sympathy as
unite saints and angels in heaven. This may seem
a strong expression. It was exactly what we felt,
and no one who has not been in a college revival can
realize the truth of it. There can be nothing like it
out of college.
" The genuineness of this feeling was manifested
when we came to the usually exciting class elec-
tions. Our meeting was free from any exhibition of
selfishness or party feeling. Class Day lasted from
eight o'clock one day until half-past six the next day.
It commenced with a social prayer meeting and closed
at morning prayers when we all came into the chapel,
and the president gave us his blessing.
"When we entered college, out of sixty-three in
our class only twenty-two were Christians. When
we graduated, out of fifty-four, forty-eight were pro-
fessors of religion. In all there were twenty-four
conversions in our class during our college course."
Several of the best scholars and leading men in
the senior class, at the beginning of the year, were
not only without hope in Christ, but opposed to evan-
gelical and personal religion. One of these excited
great interest. The writer of this history had re-
peated interviews with him, and followed up personal
*Rev. George Washburn, President of Robert College, in
a letter based on a journal kept at that time.
282 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
conversation with written appeals. Never have I
seen such bitterness of feeling, coupled with such ac-
knowledged and utter wretchedness. He cursed the
day of his birth, and was almost ready to curse his
best friends, the name, sacred in the history of mis-
sions, which he bore, the parents that gave him birth,
and the God who made him for a life of sin and mis-
ery. Like Saul of Tarsus, he breathed out threaten-
ings and slaughter against the church. But like Saul
of Tarsus it was at length said of him " Behold, he
prayeth." The next morning his whole appearance,
as well as character and spirit, was changed. From
that time he labored to build up what he before
sought to destroy. Three years later this Saul of
Tarsus was with us, an officer of college, a co-laborei
in the revival of 1858 a very Paul the Apostle in
the boldness, force of reasoning, and fervor of elo-
quence with which he prayed men to be reconciled
to God. And now he is one of the most able, earnest
and useful among the pastors in our Congregational
churches.
The revival of 1858 exceeded in power and interest
any other in the period now under review, if not any
other in the whole history of the college. We have
space only to record the results as they were given
to the public by President Stearns not long after the
event :
" Nearly three-quarters of our number were previ-
ously professors of religion, about twenty of them
having taken their stand publicly on the side of
Christ some months before. Of the remainder be-
tween forty and fifty have been hopefully converted
during the term, leaving less than twenty in the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 283
whole college undecided. Of the senior class but
three or four remain who have not commenced the
Christian life; of the junior class, but one, and he an
inquirer; of the sophomore class, four or five; of the
freshmen, nine or ten. The reformation of character
and manners was not less remarkable than the re-
newal of hearts."
The ) T ear 1866 was a memorable year in the relig-
ious history of the college, exceeding even 1858 in
the number of those who began a new Christian life,
and hardly surpassed by it in the deep interest of the
scenes and events of the revival, though differing
much from that season in the apparently spontaneous
beginning and quiet progress of the work.
Since 1866 revivals have been less frequent and
less powerful in Amherst, as also in other colleges
and churches, than they had been in the previous
half-century. But in the last spring term of the last
year of his life, as we have already said in a previous
chapter, the prayers of President Stearns were an-
swered and his labors were blessed in what he con-
sidered, and we also felt to be, perhaps the greatest
and best of all the revivals that had crowned his
college work and one of the greatest and best in the
whole history of the college. On the last Sunday
that he officiated, and at the last sacrament of the
supper that he administered, he received to the com-
munion the largest number of young men that he had
ever admitted at one time to the college church, thus
setting the seal to his testimony to the reality and
worth of revivals of religion and bringing to a fitting
close the work of a long, useful, and happy life.
In 1878, the second year of President Seelye's ad-
284 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ministration, the records of the college church show
the admission of twenty-seven members by profession
at one communion, and of three members at each of
three subsequent communions. Four years later, in
1882, there was a season of especial religious interest,
which he thus gratefully acknowledges in his annual
report to the trustees :
" We have had many blessings during the year,
the chief of which has been a deep and pervasive re-
ligious revival during the winter term, whose power
has been seen with only blessed results through the
year. Without any undue excitement and without
any interruption to our college work, the whole col-
lege has been evidently lifted thereby to a higher
plane of both moral and religious action."
It appears from the records of the church that six-
teen persons were admitted to its membership as the
immediate result of this revival, and nearly as many
more at other communions in the course of the year.
In none of his subsequent reports does President Seel-
ye speak of anything that he calls a revival, and as it
has already been said that revivals were less fre-
quent in the last half of President Stearns' adminis-
tration, so we must acknowledge that they were less
frequent and less powerful under the administration
of President Seelye. There were times of refreshing
and rejoicing every year in connection with the day
of prayer for colleges. The church was revived and
strengthened, and additions were made from time to
time to its members as well as its strength. But
there were not such seasons of universal thoughtful-
ness and seriousness, of anxiety and deep conviction
of sin on the part of the irreligious, of earnest and
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 285
importunate prayer among Christians, of numerous
conversions and great rejoicings as are technically
called revivals. And a corresponding change had
taken place also in the churches. The time was
when, in our Congregational and Presbyterian
churches, it was expected that the children and youth
in Christian families would grow up out of the church
and without personal religion. And when they came
into the church it would be only after a long period
of deep distress and conviction of sin, followed by
marvellous light and peace and joy. Such angular
and spasmodic conversions, as they have been some-
times called, would, of course, cause wonder and joy
in the congregation, and spreading through the com-
munity would bring large numbers into the church,
until they came to be regarded as the chief if not
the indispensable means of its growth and prosper-
ity. Indeed, there were times when conversions that
were not attended by such feeling and excitement
were looked on with suspicion as hardly genuine.
These views have gradually changed and at length
passed away. Under the influence of Christian nur-
ture and training the children of Christian parents
are now expected to grow up as Christians, to enter
the church in early youth or childhood, and it is
deemed a matter of little moment whether they know
the time when they began the Christian life. Of
course, in such churches with such views revivals
have greatly changed their character, or ceased to
exist. In Christian families the very materials are
wanting for such revivals, for those spasmodic con-
versions do not occur, and there will be revivals only
in the etymological and strictly proper sense of the
286 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
word, as a renewal and quickening or a development
and manifestation of the Christian life in the church,
together with the bringing in of those who have
never been in the fold of Christ or, as prodigal sons,
have wandered away from it. Such a change as we
have imperfectly described has gradually come over
our Christian colleges. In the earlier years of the
history of Amherst, such young men as Bela B. Ed-
wards, Alexander McClure, Henry Lyman, Edward
P. Humphrey, Jonathan Brace, Ebenezer Burgess,
Asa S. Fiske, Charles Hart well, etc., came to college
from Christian families but without hope in Christ,
without personal piety, some of them bitterly hostile
to evangelical and experimental religion, and con-
tinued so until almost the close of their college
course. And when in their senior year it was an-
nounced that, perhaps after prolonged darkness and
distress or violent opposition, they had been con-
verted and come out positive and strong on the Lord's
side, of course it produced a prodigious impression,
and large numbers followed in their footsteps. But
the same men coming to college in these days would
in all probability have come as members of the
church, and although their influence would have been
great for good, they could not have been the means
of so powerful an impression, and the very materials
for such a revival would be wanting.
A large proportion of those who come to Amherst
from Christian families in these days come as mem-
bers of Christian churches. Indeed, there has been
slow and gradual increase in the percentage of church
members at their entrance, almost from the begin-
ning. The percentage of -church members in the
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 287
class of '86 at their entrance was 54; in the class of
'87 it was 50; in the class of '88 it was 68; in the
class of '89 it was 67. This large percentage of
church members at their entrance, together with an
increasing number of students who come from fam-
ilies that are not religious as the college grows older
and larger, is probably the principal cause of the
change which we have noted in regard to revivals.
It is a change of form and manner rather than of
principle and spirit. Then there was more of excite-
ment and intensity of feeling; now there is more of
Christian work and associated action. Then revivals
and conversions were more matters of observation
and remark; now they excite less attention, won-
der and admiration ; while there is perhaps more
consistency, steadfastness and perseverance, certainly
there never was a time when the whole college, the
trustees, the faculty, and the great body of the stu-
dents were more decidedly and positively Christian
in their faith and practice; strong in faith, rich in
good works, steadfast and immovable, always abound-
ing in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as they know
that their labor is not in vain in the Lord.
There are other causes at work, which are unfa-
vorable to revivals, such as the growth of the college,
the increasing number of the faculty and the stu-
dents, the number and variety of elective studies,
which make the faculty and students no longer
the unit they once were in their instruction and their
moral and religious influence, the weakening to some
extent, though by no means so much as in the larger
universities, of the tie which unites classmates to
each other and once made it easy to propagate relig-
288 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
ious interest through classes all these are adverse
circumstances.
There are two causes, which, although they are
good and useful in themselves, tend to impair the
feeling of personal responsibility which the faculty
of Amherst College used to feel for the religious
character of the students. The faculty used to have
charge of the Thursday evening meeting and of the
special meetings on other evenings in times of re-
vival. But this responsibility is now divided be-
tween a few of the professors and the Christian stu-
dents, especially the members of the Young Men's
Christian Association. Moreover, a large proportion
of the faculty used to take their turn in preaching in
the college pulpit. This duty is now devolved on
the pastor or associate pastor and the distinguished
preachers from abroad, who are invited to occupy the
pulpit from time to time. Of course, there are great
advantages in both these arrangements. But they
have also their incidental dangers and temptations,
especially to shirk responsibility for the religious
education of the students.
There are other temptations and dangers for which
we cannot shake off the responsibility. The grand
central doctrines of Christianity, the law and the gos-
pel, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, atone-
ment and redemption, the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
and the great salvation are not preached now in church
and college with the simplicity, pungency, and power
which made them so potent in the revivals in the
first half of the present century, and which still make
them powerful in the hands of such evangelists as
Mr. Mills and Mr. Moody. The applications of
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 289
Christianity to society, government, and the common
affairs of this life have never been urged from the
pulpit with so much clearness and force as they now
are, and organizations are multiplied for carrying
the gospel to the masses of the poor, sinning and
suffering in our own land and to the perishing mil-
lions of heathendom. And this is well. We are
proud of our Beecher and our Parkhurst and our more
recent and less famous graduates who are the pastors
of institutional churches, who preach the gospel to
the poor, who live the gospel in the vilest and most
wretched parts of our great cities, as Christ came into
our sinful and miserable world to seek and to save
that which was lost. We admire their patriotism
and charity and philanthropy. We honor their self-
sacrifice and moral courage and martyr spirit and
heroic deeds which speak louder than words. But
are we not in danger of forgetting that all men are
lost, that this is a lost world, that there is another
world of righteous and eternal retribution, that or-
ganizations are only machines which cannot save
souls, and that men must be converted, sanctified,
and saved as individuals, not as communities or na-
tions? Is there not still greater danger that the
pressure of business and pleasure on the churches
and of study and amusement in the colleges will drive
out sober thought and serious attention to personal
religion. In those times of great and blessed re-
vivals, there was one term set apart and consecrated
especially to the religious interest of the colleges.
The winter term, in itself peculiarly adapted to such
use, was the appointed season for the day of prayer
for colleges, and was widely, we might say generally,
290 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
devoted to that service, both in the colleges and the
churches, and that was the season in which almost
all those glorious revivals occurred which so glad-
dened the hearts of Christian parents and strength-
ened the hands of ministers and missionaries through
the land and the world. But now foot-ball has taken
possession of the first term, and base-ball of the third
term, and the junior promenade and the like social
pleasures, and concerts and lecture courses, are en-
croaching on the second term, and no time is left for
special attention to that which is the chief concern of
individual students and the vital interest of the whole
college. Must this be so? Ought it to be so? We
freely admit that we cannot expect just such revivals
as were the joy and strength of the college in its first
half-century. But why may we not have a portion
at least of the winter term as a longer day of prayer,
like a more spiritual and better Lent, consecrated
and set apart, not to cease from study, but from or-
dinary recreations and amusements, to stop and think
on higher and better themes, to pray and labor for
those things which it chiefly concerns us to know and
to do, to give to spiritual truths and eternal realities
the place and weight to which in their nature they
are manifestly entitled?
According to our last general catalogue (in 1892-
93), there were 3,428 alumni of Amherst, of whom
1,164 have been ordained clergymen and 120 foreign
missionaries. These statistics show that more than
one-third of the entire number of Amherst graduates
have been ordained clergymen. The percentage
of ministers, however, during the fifty years in-
cluded in this history (1840 to 1889 inclusive), has
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 2QI
been gradually diminishing. In the first quarter
century of that period (1840 to 1864), it was 32 per
cent; in the second quarter (1866 to 1889 inclusive),
it was 17 per cent; and in the last five years of that
period (1885 to 1889), about 15 per cent of graduates
and non-graduates entered the ministry. 1
This was to be expected in a college which was
founded expressly for the education of ministers, but
which has grown to dimensions altogether exceeding
the highest expectations of the founders. In one
point of view, of course, it is to be regretted ; in an-
other, it is a matter of rejoicing. We cannot but
regret that more of our graduates do not become
ministers; we cannot but rejoice that so many of
them are Christian laymen, workers for Christ in
business, in the professions, in all the common walks
of life. Would God, they were all either the one or
the other, and in our day we can hardly tell for which
the demand is the more imperative.
Doubtless the Master would say : " These ought ye
to have done and not to leave the other undone."
Must we always go from one extreme to another?
Why may we not be more like the primitive church,
into which large numbers were gathered on a single
day, and yet the Lord continued to add to them daily
1 Our readers who have read the article of Professor Pea-
body in The Forum for September, 1894, will see that the per-
centage of Amherst graduates entering the ministry in his
last period is considerably less. But his last period is the last
five years up to date, while that in our text is the last five years
of President Seelye's administration. At Amherst a good
many graduates enter the ministry after several years of
teaching or other ways of raising money.
2Q2 A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
of such as were being saved? But while we thus
recognize the fact that there are diversities of opera-
tions but the same Spirit, we need above all a deep
feeling of our entire dependence on that Spirit for
his regenerating, sanctifying, and saving power and
presence. " Ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be wit-
nesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and
in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
lSE
OF THE
IVERSITY
A
APPENDIX.
DONATIONS RECEIVED BEFORE THE OPENING
OP THE COLLEGE.
The establishment of Amherst College was made
possible by a subscription known as the Charity
Fund, amounting to $52,244. When the first build-
ing, South College, was erected, inhabitants of Am-
herst, Pelham, Leverett, Belchertown, Hadley, and
even more distant towns, gave stone, lime, sand,
lumber, and other materials, also labor, provisions
for the workmen, and the use of teams and tools.
Much of the furniture for the rooms was obtained in
this way ; and there were also some gifts of money
especially for the erection of this building.
DONATIONS RECEIVED IN PRESIDENT MOORE'S
ADMINISTRATION, 1821-23.
The chief donation of this period is known as the
Thirty Thousand Dollar Subscription. There were
various small gifts of money and articles, including a
bell, several pieces of apparatus, and books for the
library.
293
294 APPENDIX.
DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS RECEIVED IN PRES-
IDENT HUMPHREY'S ADMINISTRATION, 1823-45.
Bequest of Adam Johnson for a chapel $4,000
Subscription of 1832 50,000
John Tappan, for essays on temperance 500
Subscription used for buying books about 3, 500
Subscription of 1840 to 1845 ; this includes $10,000 of
the Sears Foundation, $15,000 to be given for a
professorship, and $11,000 known to be set down
in wills of persons then still living 100,000
$158,000
DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS RECEIVED IN PRES-
IDENT HITCHCOCK'S ADMINISTRATION, 1845-54.
Williston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory. . . . $20,000
Graves Professorship of the Greek Language and
Literature 20,000
Hitchcock Professorship of Natural Theology and
Geology 22,000
Donation from the State 25,000
Sears Foundation 12,000
The Woods Cabinet and Observatory 9,000
Subscription for the Library Building and for books. 15,000
Appleton Zoological Cabinet 10,000
$133,000
Here should be mentioned, also, Professor Adams' Zoolog-
ical Collection, Professor Shepard's Cabinet of Minerals, Pres-
ident Hitchcock's Ichnological Cabinet, and the collection of
Indian relics given by Edward Hitchcock, Jr.
DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS RECEIVED IN PRESI-
DENT STEARNS' ADMINISTRATION, 1854-76.
Donation for the Sweetser Lecture-Room, 1855 $1,000
Donation for the Nineveh Gallery,* 1857 967
Subscriptions for East College, 1857, seq 5,ooo
Donation for Williston Hall, 1857 16,000
Hitchcock Scholarships, 1858 10,000
* Building and contents cost $1,167, f which only $200 was
paid out of the College Treasury.
APPENDIX.
Legacy of Dr. and Mrs. Moore, 1858 ................ $9, 175
Legacy of Asahel Adams, 1858 ..................... 4, 500
Subscriptions for the Gymnasium, 1859 ............. 3,55o
Donation of Messrs. J. C. Baldwin and A. Lilly, 1859. 4,000
Subscriptions of Alumni for the Library, 1859, seq. . 7,000
Legacy of Jonathan Phillips,* 1860 .................. 6, 500
Grants by the Legislature, 1861-3 .................. 27, 500
Walker Professorship of Mathematics and Astronomy,
1861 ........................................... 25,000
Walker Instructorships, etc., 1862 .................. 10,000
Walker Prizes, 1862-3 .............................. 2,000
Legacy of Richard Bond for General Treasury, 1863. 4,000
Donation of David Sears for Library Building,* 1863. 8,000
Walker Building Fund (Dr. Walker and others) , * 1 864. 140, ooo
Donation for College Church (W. F. Stearns), 1864.* 46,000
Samuel Green Professorship, 1864 .................. 25,000
Walker Legacy, 1866 .............................. 144,976
Donation of George H. Gilbert for books,* 1866 ..... 7,000
Legacy of Dr. Barrett for Gymnasium, 1870 ......... 5, ooo
Mr. Williston for Instruction in English Literature,
1869-71 ........................................ 3,ooo
Donation of Mr. Williston at Semi-Centennial, 1871. 50,000
Donation of Mr. Howe, Chime of Bells and Scholar-
ship, -1871 ...................................... 5,000
Increase of Charity Fund f ......................... 10,000
Increase of Stimson Fund .......................... 8,000
Mr. Hitchcock to increase his Professorship and
Scholarships, 1.869 ............................. 20,000
Recent Scholarships ............................... 35, ooo
Prizes not mentioned above ........................ 12,000
Increase of Collections in Natural History J ......... 8,000
Illustrations and Ornaments in Classical Recitation-
Rooms ......................................... 2, 500
Bust of Dr. Hitchcock and other Ornamental Statuary i, 500
Hallock Park, 1868 ................................. 2,000
Mr. Hitchcock, for Scholarships and Kindred Pur-
poses, 1872 .................................... 100,000
Total .................................. $769, 168
* With income added. f Added to the principal.
\ Estimated at $12,000 by the curator (Prof. E. Hitchcock),
but about $4,000 was paid for some of them out of State
grants already mentioned. Among the donations are the
megatherium, by Joshua Bates, Esq., of London ($500) ; the
skeleton and skin of the gorilla, by Rev. William Walker,
of the Gaboon mission (then worth in the market $2,000).
Some $600 was paid to Dr. E. Hitchcock, Jr., for specimens
in Comparative Osteology.
296 APPENDIX.
DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS RECEIVED IN PRES-
IDENT SEELYE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1876-90.
Subscriptions to pay Shepard note :
Mrs. Samuel Williston $2,500.00
E. H. Sawyer 2,000.00
W. W. Scarborough 2,000.00
F. Gilbert 250.00
A. L. Williston 2,000.00
John C. Parsons 400.00
S. B. Chittenden 2,000.00
James B. Jermain 2,000.00
Harding, Gray & Dewey 100.00
William Whiting 5,000.00
James Y. Yates 500.00
John A. Burnham 3,000.00
Anonymous 2,000.00
E. A. Goodnow 1,000.00
$24,750.00
Collected by Professor Mather for the Mather
Collection of Art :
J. H. Southworth $2, 500.00
G. H. Whitcomb 250.00
Roland Mather 100.00
Mrs. Charlotte A. Johnson 50.00
James H. Welles' Estate 276.42
3,176.42
Lucius J. Knowles, legacy for Art Collection 5,000.00
Subscription for addition to the Library building :
Aaron Bagg $500.00
James Y. Yates 250.00
W. W. Scarborough 2,000.00
W. O. Grover 1,000.00
James B. Jermain 8,000.00
John A. Burnham 2,000.00
13,750.00
Dr. Eben Alden for care of Library . . 5,000.00
Joel Giles for books for Library 50,595.00
C. M. Pratt toward Gymnasium 35,275.00
Toward furnishing Gymnasium :
Frederick Billings $5,000.00
W. W. Scarborough 1,000.00
6,000.00
APPENDIX. 297
For new Mineralogical Cabinet :
John A. Burnham $5,000.00
W. W. Scarborough 2,000.00
$7,000.00
Jonathan Brace legacy $2,000.00
William Reed legacy ($5,000 was re-
ceived in 1858) 5,000.00
Asa Otis legacy 25,000.00
Williston legacy 28,615.48
Mrs. V. G. Stone Professorship 50,000.00
Henry Winkley 50,000.00
Frederick Billings 50,000.00
D. Willis James Fund 100,000.00
Seelye Fund, given by D. W. James. . 100,000.00
Winkley Legacy 30,000.00
Mrs. Chester W. Chapin 50,000.00
H. T. Morgan's bequest 80,556.72
Dr. William J. Walker's estate 11,357.89
Frederick Marquand and his estate. .. 15,000.00
Frederick Billings, for general use... 5,000.00
Welles Southworth gift 5,000.00
Class of 1880 Fund, for general use 365.00
Latin Prize Fund 2, 524.93
Class of 1878 Latin Prize Fund 200.00
Parmly Billings Senior Latin Prize
Fund 1,100.00
Chemical Fund of 1861 1,010.96
Thomas McGraw, for apparatus for
astronomical department 150.00
L. Hamilton McCormick, for new
clock in chapel 650.00
613,430.98
Chemical Laboratory Building Fund :
E. A. Strong $1,400.00
J. E. Sanford 500.00
D. Willis James 10,000.00
J. S. Brayton 500.00
H. D. Hyde 2, 500.00
E. W. Peet loo.oo
G. H. Whitcomb 5,000.00
20, ooo . oo
E. W. Bond, toward rebuilding Walker
Hall i, ooo. oo
Gift of Robt. M. Woods and sister 5,630.66
Pratt Athletic Field and grand stand,
with grading and furnishings, by
F. B. Pratt 25,446. 57
298 APPENDIX.
Scholarships :
James S. Seymour $5,000.00
Quincy Tufts 2,000.00
Mrs. S. P. Miller 1,000.00
Class oi 7 1856 1,000.00
Dolly Coleman Blake 842. n
Class of 1858 1,000.00
Class of 1869 1,000.00
David and G. Henry Whitcomb. . . 12,000.00
Moses Day 5,000.00
Rev. Henry S. Green 1,000.00
Class of 1865 1,008.31
Class of 1845 987.98
Classes of 1829, 1835, 1838, 1866,
1867, and 1870 502.26
Class of 1862 (Henry Gridley
Scholarship) 2,000.00
Mrs. Valeria G. Stone 25,000.00
Mrs. Alice T. March (Thomas Hall
Scholarship) 1,000.00
Lucius J. Knowles 3,000.00
Charles Thayer Reed 2, 500.00
$65 , 840. 66
Grand total $826, 398. 60
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
299
NUMBER OF THE FACULTY AND STUDENTS YEAR BY
YEAR.*
Year.
Faculty.
Seniors.
Juniors.
Sopho-
mores.
Fresh-
men.
Total of
Students.
1821-22
4
3
6
19
31
59
1822-23.
6
5
21
32
40
98
1823-24
6
*9
29
41
37
126
1824-25. . . .
8
25
41
31
39
136
1825-26
8
33
24
45
50
152
1826-27
ii
24
40
55
51
170
1827-28
9
42
47
53
57
199
1828-29
8
40
47
72
67
226
1829-30
10
32
74
47
53
207
1830-31
10
61
40
50
37
188
1831-32. . . .
8
39
40
50
60
189
1832-33....
10
4i
50
64
72
227
1833-34
10
44
50
60
85
239
1834-35....
12
44
52
77
70
243
1835-36....
12
4i
63
72
76
252
1836-37....
13
60
50
73
76
259
1837-38....
12
40
59
57
50
206
1838-39....
14
57
48
47
37
189
1839-40....
12
47
43
4i
38
169
1840-41. . . .
12
30
35
40
52
157
1841-42. . . .
12
28
27
43
44
142
1842-43
12
21
34
42
32
129
1843-44
9
30
33
29
32
124
1844-45
II
30
27
30
34
121
1845-46
9
26
23
35
34
118
1846-47. . . .
9
19
30
36
35
120
1847-48
ii
29
36
35
50
150
1848-49. . . .
12
33
29
52
52
166
1849-50
12
25
43
55
53
176
1850-51
II
41
52
49
40
182
1851-52....
II
43
43
4i
63
190
1852-53....
12
42
35
61
57
195
1853-54
II
33
54
58
56
201
1854-55....
18
53
59
59
66
237
1855-56....
15
49
50
65
54
2X8
1856-57....
15
45
60
60
64
229
1857-58....
13
52
49
54
66
221
* Special and graduate students are not included.
300
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
NUMBER OF THE FACULTY AND STUDENTS YEAR BY
YEAR (Continued} .*
Year.
Faculty.
Seniors.
Juniors.
Sopho-
mores.
Fresh-
men.
Total of
Students.
1858-59....
16
47
53
61
74
235
1859-60. . . .
16
48
56
71
67
242
1860-61
17
51
56
60
53
220
1861-62
17
58
49
50
78
235
1862-63
18
42
42
76
60
220
1863-64
16
30
58
54
50
192
1864-65
14
57
56
64
^45
222
1865-66....
17
54
51
44
54
203
1866-67
16
49
44
62
70
225
1867-68....
16
4i
61
69
73
244
1868-69....
18
57
58
7i
65
251
1869-70. . . .
19
53
64
63
75
255
1870-71. . . .
20
65
49
76
7i
26l
1871-72....
21
49
65
68
62
244
1872-73....
29
59
67
60
82
268
1873-74....
20
66
57
86
94
303
1874-75....
23
50
80
^87
108
325
1875-76....
21
74
79
98
84
335
1876-77....
20
79
86
80
75
320
1877-78....
23
82
77
81
85
325
1878-79.-..
23
76
75
90
9 2
333
1879-80
23
72
83
79
in
345
1880-81
24
79
69
107
82
337
1881-82
27
65
96
86
96
343
1882-83
28
94
79
97
82
352
1883-84
28
81
86
83
7i
321
1884-85
31
83
78
70
103
334
1885-86
32
77
74
IOI
105
352
1886-87....
31
70
98
94
68
330
1887-88
32
90
99
66
93
348
1888-89
31
98
70
94
93
355
1889-90
30
66
86
88
103
343
1890-91 ....
32
84
90
100
73
347
1891-92. . . .
32
84
91
70
84
329
1892-93. . . .
34
88
73
87
134
382
1893-94....
36
70
80
119
134
403
1894-95....
36
81
124
119
no
434
* Special and graduate students are not included.
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
301
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302
A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
MEMBERSHIP OF FRATERNITIES IN RECENT YEARS.
1889.
1890.
1891.
1892.
1893.
1894.
1895-
A. A. $... .
32
36
36
37
38
1Q
40
*. Y
37
33
38
34
39
42
37
A. K. E
37
34
35
47
42
16
3-2
A. T
33
34
31
25
29
35
35
X. *
25
22
18
22
22
24
2Q
X. 4>
36
33
33
29
2Q
20
^6
B. 9. n
26
28
32
32
34
34
37
e. A. x
35
33
34
31
32
34
1^
4>. A. e
29
27
?8
?6
31
34
38
4>. T. A. (Established 1893) . .
10
10
Total in fraternities..
289
280
785
783
2q6
317
320
Non-society men
69
fy
67
51
9
115
114
Total in college
358
54.4.
-3C2
a-34
-386
412
414.
TUITION FEES PER ANNUM FROM 1821 TO 1895.
1821 to 1833
$10 to (i>n*
1864 to 1868
$4^
1833 to 1834
27!
1868 to 1871
75
1834 to 1836
30
1871 to 1875
90
1836 to 1847
33
1875 to 1886
IOO
1847 to 18^^
10
1886 to
no
1855 to 1864
<i6
*This included room-rent, lights, etc., and varied accord-
ing to the room occupied.
f Beginning with 1833, the tuition fee paid for nothing but
tuition.
INDEX.
ABBOTT, Jacob, tutor, 43; pro-
fessor, 60; mentioned, 62, 274
Absences, allowance, 241
Academy, turning the college
into, considered, no
Adams, Charles B., tutor, 97;
Professor, gives his zoological
collection, 116; death, 135; his
sons in the Civil War, 184;
mentioned, 125, 134
Admission, requisites in 1822, 31;
by certificate, 236
Alden, Dr. Ebenezer, gift, 144;
gift for the library, 231; men-
tioned, 104, 117
Alden, Rev. Edmund K., D.D.,
mentioned, 206
Alexandrian Society, organized,
33; library, 32, 34, 72; end, 261
Allen, Rev. David O., claim to
be first graduate, 39; men-
tioned, 271
Allen, Francis R., architect of
library, 230
Allen, Dr. Nathan, mentioned,
162; quoted, 163, 164
Alumni, subscription by those at
Andover, 79; criticise the col-
lege publicly, 98; number, 290
American Education Society,
mentioned, 21
Amherst, town, aid of inhabi-
tants, 17; relations with the
college, 87; starting place for
subscriptions, 123
Academy, rise and ca-
reer, 3-5 ; its trustees plan the
Charity Institution, 6; call a
convention to consider their
plan, 10; do not oppose re-
moval of Williams College, 14;
mentioned, 36, 47
Amherst System described, 238-
4i
Anti-slavery excitement, 90-92;
societies of students, 91
Appleton Zoological Cabinet,
donation obtained, 127, 129;
erected, 146
Appointments for exhibitions,
dissatisfaction with, 92-96
Athenian Society, organized, 33;
library, 32, 34, 72; end, 261
Athletic Board, 258
contests, 254; value and
needs, 257, 258
Ayres, Rowland, tutor, 134
BAKER, Lieut. Enos, mentioned,
16
Baldwin, Moses H., gift, 144
Band, college, 74
Banister, Hon. William B., men-
tioned, 79, 105
Barnum, Rev. H. N., mentioned,
193
Bartlett, Homer, mentioned, 52
Barrett Gymnasium, built, 150
Barrett, Dr. Benjamin, gifts and
bequest to gymnasium, 151;
gift for improving grounds, 159
Baseball ground laid out, 159
Bathing establishment, provided
by students, 74
Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward,
mentioned, 150, 193, 289
304
INDEX.
Belcher, John W., mentioned,
277
Bell and Tower, 28
Bernard, Gov. Francis, charters
Queen's College, I
Billings, Dea. Elisha, mentioned,
3
Billings, Parmly, professorship,
252 n.
Blodgett, Rev. Edward, mention-
ed, 94 n.
Boltwood, Lucius, mentioned, 63
Boltwood, Lucius M., librarian,
134
Bowles, Samuel, mentioned, 151
Brace, Jonathan, mentioned, 286
Buildings, first stone, 124; in Dr.
Stearns' presidency, 145
Bullock, Hon. Alexander H. t
presides at the Semi-Centennial
Celebration, 193; establishes a
scholarship, 197 ;/. ; mentioned,
130, 162, 276
Bullock, Hon. Rufus, gives a
telescope, 121, 130
Burgess, Ebenezer, mentioned,
286
Burr, Dr., lectures on natural
theology, 171
Burroughs, Rev. George S.,
D.D., appointed to the Samuel
Green professorship, 213; be-
comes president of Wabash
College, 213; mentioned, 269
Burt, William S., mentioned, 32
CALHOUN, Hon. William B., ad-
dress of commemoration, 120;
lecturer, 134; mentioned, 104,
H5, H7
Catalogue, first, 30; reissued, 31;
for 1822-23, 32; for 1824-25,
43; for 1825-26, 62
Chapel, considered, 69; built, 70;
cost, 75 n.\ renovated, 158
Chapin, Dr. Alonzo, quoted, 33,
271
Charity Fund, devoted to bene-
ficiaries, 99 n.
Charity Institution, founded, 6;
constitution, 6; convention to
consider the project, 10; loca-
tion decided, 10, n ; subscrip-
tion raised, 12; further meas-
ures taken, 15; committee on
site and building appointed,
16; building erected, 17-19;
corner-stone laid, 20; relations
with education societies, 21;
first president elected, 22;
course of study to be thorough,
23; dedication and inaugura-
tion exercises, 25; opened for
students, 26; first catalogue,
30; first anniversary exercises,
36
Charter, first application to Leg-
islature, 46; second applica-
tion, 47-51; third application,
5 I ~5^; granted, 58; peculiar
provisions, 58; organization of
trustees under, 59
Chemistry, apparatus provided,
29; first lectures, 30; depart-
ment removed to Williston
Hall, 1 68; receives a grant from
the Walker Legacy Fund, 169;
new laboratory, 233
Child, Linus, mentioned, 171
Chip day, 33
Church, college, building erected,
154-58; preachers in, 210; es-
tablishment, 267-69; member-
ship, 269; first pastor installed,
270
Church, W T est Parish, withdrawal
of college from, 68
Civil War, enlistments of profes-
sors and students, 183; grad-
uates and undergraduates who
served in, 185; number of offi-
cers, 1 86; deaths in the service,
187; undergraduates who died
in the service enrolled as grad-
uates, 188
Clark, Alvan, mentioned, 121,
130
Clark, Clinton, mentioned, 276
Clark, Rev. Daniel A., men-
tioned, 20, 21, 25 n.
INDEX.
305
Clark, Hon. Lincoln, quoted, 42
Clark, Prof. William 8., sub-
scription to build gymnasium,
150; resigns, 160; service in
the Civil War, 169, 183; re-
ported killed, 184; mentioned,
125, 134, 146, 150, 168, 169,
277
Clarke, George C., mentioned, 193
Classical department, changes,
171-73
Coburn, Rev. David N., men-
tioned, 94 .
Coe, Elijah L., mentioned, 32
Coleman, Lyman, instructor, 134
College Hall purchased, 159
Collegiate Charity Institution.
See Charity Institution.
Colton, Simeon, mentioned, 4
Commencement, afternoon ses-
sion abolished, 83; time
changed, 101
Condit, Rev. Jonathan B., ap-
pointed professor, 64; men-
tioned, 105
Connecticut valley, college want-
ed in, i, 15
Course of study in 1822, 31; in
1824-25, 43; parallel course,
64-68; in 1837-38, 97
Cowles, Dr. Rufus, mentioned,
16
Cowles, Prof. William L., men-
tioned, 72 n., 215
Cressey, Rev. Timothy Robin-
son, and his sons in the Civil
War, 187; quoted, 46
Crew, wins intercollegiate race,
254
Crosby, Rev. Joshua, mentioned,
16, 20, 21, 25, 268
Crowell, Prof. E. P., his labors
for the college, 222
DEBT of the college, 99, 102, 117,
118
Degree of A. B., grades, 238
Derby, Hasket, mentioned, 130
Dickinson, Hon. Edward, men-
tioned, 153, 228
Dickinson, Col. Elijah, men-
tioned, 16
Dickinson, Enos, gives the Nine-
veh Gallery, 146
Dickinson, Samuel Fowler, men-
tioned, 12, 16, 21
Dickinson, William A., mention-
ed, 153, 154, 155, 158, 191,
227, 228, 229, 232
Dickinson, William C., tutor,
134; mentioned, 277
Donations, meeting for com-
memorating, 120; list, 293-98
Dwight, Timothy, mentioned,
274
Dwight, Rev. Dr., quoted, 225,
226
EAST and West Parishes, feud,
47 n.
East College erected, 149
Eaton, Prof. Amos, mentioned,
30, 35
Eaton, J. H., instructor in
chemistry, 169
Edwards, Prof. Bela B., chair-
man of committee on library
building, 123; death, 124;
mentioned, 121, 271, 286;
quoted, 37
Edwards, Henry, gift, 144;
mentioned, 105, 117, 162
Edwards, Henry L., tutor, 134
Elective studies, 175, 235
Ely, Rev. Alfred, D.D., men-
tioned, 117
Emerson, Benjamin K., ap-
pointed instructor in geology,
171; appointed professor, 171
Emerson, John M., tutor, 134
Estabrook, Joseph, elected pro-
fessor, 24; inaugurated, 25;
librarian, 30
Esty, William C., appointed in-
structor, 165; professor, 165;
mentioned, 226
Examinations, system changed,
237
Exercise, required, 252; effect,
255
306
INDEX.
Expenses of students, 33, 84, 88,
118
FACULTY, fine provided for, 82 ;
assume financial management,
106, 109; benefited by David
Sears, 116; increase, 285; leave
of absence, 236
Field, Lucius, tutor, 30
Fayerweather bequest, 233
Field, Rev. Pindar, first presi-
dent of the Athenian Society,
33; graduation, 36; mentioned,
27, 34, 194
Field, Rev. Thomas P., tutor,
97; professor, 127; resigns,
173; Samuel Green professor,
212; resigns, 213; mentioned,
134
Fines, 81, 82
Fisk, Rev. Samuel, death in the
Civil War, 185; mentioned,
.277
Fiske, Asa S., mentioned, 286
Fiske, Rev. John, D.D., men-
tioned, 16, 55, 117
Fiske, Rev. Nathan W., Pro-
fessor of Latin and Greek,
43; transferred to chair of
philosophy, 64; character, 134;
mentioned, 62, 79, 82, 134,
277; quoted, 113, 274
Fiske, Samuel, tutor, 134
Fletcher, William I., services as
librarian, 223
Foster, Hon. Alfred D., men-
tioned, 105, 117
Fowler, Prof. William C., resig-
nation, 103
Franklin County Association of
Ministers, suggests a college at
Amherst, 2
Fraternities, Greek letter, when
established, 262; influence,
262-65; number of members,
302
Freshman levee, 133
Frink, Prof. Henry A., mention-
ed, 215
Fuller, Edward J., mentioned, 2 73
GARMAN, Prof. Charles E., men-
tioned, 215
General Court, See Legislature,
Massachusetts.
Genung, Prof. John F., mention-
ed, 215
Gifts in President Stearns' ad-
ministration, 141; in President
Seelye's administration, 233
Gilbert Museum, beginning, 127
Giles, Joel, gift for the library, 231
Gillett, Hon. Edward B., men-
tioned, 151, 155
Goose joke, 45
Gorham, William O. , case of,
94-96
Government, system revised, 97;
the Amherst System, 239-41;
its success, 243-45
Graves, Col. Rufus, labors to ex-
tend the usefulness of Amherst
Academy, 5; financier, 63;
mentioned, 3, 21, 30, 54, 118
Graves Professorship, 116, 118
Gray, Henry, mentioned, 21, 32
Green, Lewis, tutor, 134
Green, Samuel, Professorship
founded, 166; provision that it
be held by Dr. Stearns, 200;
the professor associate pastor,
210; views of President Seelye
on, 210 n.
Grennell, George, mentioned, 12,
117
Grounds, grading, 73; extensive
improvements, 159, 234
Grout, Rev. Jonathan, mention-
ed, 16, 20
Gun captured at Newbern, 189
Gymnasium, provided by stu-
dents, 74; building provided,
150; Pratt Gymnasium built,
231
HACKETT, Prof. H. B., men-
tioned, 195
Hallock, Gerard H., mentioned,
36, 50, 121 .
Hallock, Leavitt, gives Hallock
Park, 160
INDEX.
307
Hammond, Hon. William G.,
mentioned, 264
Hampshire County, memorial of
1762, I
Hardy, Hon. Alpheus, gift,
144; establishes prizes, 145;
mentioned, 151, 153, 155,
200
Harris, E. P., appointed profes-
sor of chemistry, 169
Hartwell, Charles H., mention-
ed, 277, 286
Harvard College, mentioned, 2,
49, 63, 87, 267
Hathorne, George, architect of
Walker Hall, 153
Haven, Prof. Joseph, mentioned,
125, 134
Hayden, gift for improving
grounds, 159
Henshaw, Dr. Marshall, tutor,
134; lecturer, 218; recommend-
ed by President Seelye, 219;
resigns, 220
Hitchcock, Rev. Calvin, men-
tioned, 79
Hitchcock, Charles H., appointed
lecturer on zoology, 171
Hitchcock, Rev. Edward, D.D.,
appointed professor, 60; elect-
ed president, 106; solicits a
building from Mr. Sears, in;
his scientific standing benefits
the college, in; mode of an-
nouncing donations, 119; pro-
poses to resign, 122; sent to
Europe, 122; gives his collec-
tion of fossil footmarks, 126;
applies for part of Samuel Ap-
pleton's educational bequest,
127; resigns the presidency,
128; value of his labors, 131,
135; his conciliatory policy,
132; books, 136; death, 137;
labors for Mount Holyoke
Seminary, 138; his part in the
Nineveh gallery, 147; opens
his house for religious confer-
ence, 277; mentioned, 62, 72,
84, 92 n., 105, 146, 170;
quoted, 96, 112-15, 116-18,
119, 121, 129, 147, 150
Hitchcock, Edward, M.D., gives
his collection of Indian relics,
127;. appointed professor of
physical culture, 162; services
and popularity, 259-61; men-
tioned, 191, 232, 253
Hitchcock, Rev. Roswell D.,
D.D., tutor, 97; suggests the
Semi-Centennial Celebration,
190; proposes class scholar-
ships, 196; address to Presi-
dent Seelye on his inaugura-
tion, 206; mentioned, 193
Hitchcock, Samuel A., joins in
founding a professorship, 113,
116, 1 18; gives $10,000, 144
Hitchcock Professorship, title
changed to Geology and Zool-
ogy, 171
Holmes, Rev. Sylvester, men-
tioned, 79
Hooker, Hon. John, mentioned,
47
Hooker, John W., M.D., ap-
pointed professor of physical
culture, 162
House of students, 74
Howe, Francis S., mentioned,
277
Howe, George, gives chime of
bells, 158, 188
Howe, Rev. Nathaniel, mention-
ed, 20
Howe, Sidney Walker, death in
the Civil War, 189
Howland, George, tutor, 134
Howland, William, tutor, 134
Hubbard, Hon. Samuel, speech
in favor of incorporation, 48
Humphrey, Rev. Edward P.,
D.D., mentioned, 192, 193,
273, 286
Humphrey, Rev. Heman, D.D.,
elected president, 41; in-
augural address, 42; labors,
43; compared with President
Moore, 44; goose joke, 45;
speech for incorporation, 52;
308
INDEX.
criticised by alumni, g6; re-
signs, 103; inaugurates his suc-
cessor, 106; farewell address,
107; mentioned, 21, 23, 35, 121;
quoted, 19, 26, 45, 53, 54-57,
68, 70, 107, 272, 276
Humphrey, John, tutor, 97;
mentioned, 276
Humphrey, Leonard, tutor, 134
Hunt, Rev. Daniel, mentioned,
273
Huntington, Bishop, mentioned,
193.
Hutchins, Waldo, mentioned, 193
Hyde, Rev. William A., his
sons in the Civil War, 188
IDE. Rev. Jacob, D.D., men-
tioned, 117
Insurance on college buildings
227, 228
Investigation by committee of
the Massachusetts House of
Representatives, 53-57
JEWETT, George B., tutor, 97;
obtains subscriptions for li-
brary building, 124; professor,
124; mentioned, 125, 134
Johnson, Adam, mentioned, 69;
will established, 71
Jones, Edward, mentioned, 271
KIDDER, Corbin, mentioned, 273
King, Rev. Jonas, mentioned,
30, 62
LATHROP, Hon. Samuel, men-
tioned, 79
Lawrence, Hon. Abbott, gift,
112; mentioned, 121
Laws for the college adopted,
60; modern substitute, 242
Leavitt, Rev. Jonathan, offered
a professorship, 105
Legislature, Massachusetts, peti-
tioned for aid, 75, 76, 78, 100,
114; grants $25,000, 114;
other gifts, 142
Leland, John, college treasurer,
63; mentioned, 22, 115; speech
on incorporation, 50
Leland, Rev. Dr., mentioned,
25
Library, first accommodations,
28; removed to North College,
29; number of volumes in
1822, 32; removed to chapel
building, 71; erection of build-
ing, 123; enlarged, 229; use
of books, 230; gifts for, 231
Lothrop, Hon. E. H., men-
tioned, 273
Lobdell, Dr. Henry, procures
Assyrian collection, 147
Lyman, Henry, mentioned, 274,
286
Lyman, Jabez B., instructor, 134
Lyman, Col. Luke, appointed in-
structor in military drill, 162
Lyman, Rev. Dr., mentioned,
loo
Lyon, Mary, mentioned, 4, 138
McCLURE, Rev. Alexander W.,
D.D., mentioned, 274, 286
Mack, David, mentioned, 117
Mallet, Dr. John W., instructor
in chemistry, 168
Manross, Dr. Newton S., in-
structor in science, 168; death
in the Civil War, 169, 183
March, Francis A., tutor, 134;
mentioned, 219
Marking system changed, 237
Marsh, Rev. Justin, quoted, 271
Mason, Jeremiah, mentioned, 6;/.
Massachusetts Professorship (the)
founded, 118
Mathematics and astronomy, de-
partment founded, 164
Mather, Prof. Richard Henry,
death, 216; his life and labors,
220; mentioned, 72, 191, 227,
229, 232
Mather Art Collection, 220
Memorial bells, 158
Merriam, George, gift, 123
Merrick, James L., lecturer, 134
Merrill, Willard, mentioned, 193
INDEX.
309
Middle College, 73 n.
Military drill introduced, 162,
183
Miller, Rev. Moses, mentioned,
21
Ministry, percentage of gradu-
ates in, 290
Modern language course, stu-
dents in, 66
Montague, Prof. W. L., men-
tioned, 72 n.
Moore, Rev. Zephaniah Swift,
advocates removal of Williams
College, 14; elected president
of the Charity Institution, 2;
accepts the presidency, 23; in-
augurated, 25; labors for the
college, 37; death, 38, 48;
grief of senior class, 38; pro-
fessorship named after him,
1 19; mentioned, 13, 39, 47
Morgan, Henry T., bequest, 231
Morong, Thomas, mentioned,
277
Morse, Prof. Anson D., men-
tioned, 215
Morton, Marcus, mentioned, 58
Mount Zion, 47 n.
NASH, Rev. John A., lecturer,
134; mentioned, 125
Nelson, Rev. Dr., mentioned, 104
Newton, John R., professorship,
220
Nineveh Gallery, given, 146
North College, old, built, 29;
burnt, 148; new, built, 72;
cost, 75; renovated, 233
Norton, D. W., mentioned, 12 n.
OBSERVATORY, Lawrence, in,
116, 118
Olds, Rev. Gamaliel S., elected
professor, 24; mentioned, 25 n.
Olmsted, F. L., plans college
grounds, 234
Osgood, Rev. Samuel, mention-
ed, 32
PACKARD, Rev. Theophilus,
D.D., mentioned, 3, 13, 21,
32, 117
Packard, Rev. Theophilus ('23),
mentioned, 194, 271; quoted,
270
Paine, Dr., mentioned, 191
Palmer, Benjamin M., mentioned,
90 n.
Parallel course, 64-68
Park, Rev. Edwards A., profes-
sor, 64; offered the presidency,
105; mentioned, 124, 193
Parkes, Charles E., architect of
college buildings, 149, 150
Parkhurst, Rev. C. H., men-
tioned, 289
Parsons, Dr. David, mentioned,
20, 21, 75
Patrick, Henry J., mentioned,
277
Peabody, William A., tutor, 97;
professor, 135; death, 135;
mentioned, 134, 276, 291 n.
Peck, Rev. Solomon, mentioned,
62
Peirce, Prof. Benjamin, men-
tioned, 165
Phillips, Jonathan, gift for the
library, 124
Physical culture department, 160-
64
Physics, new laboratory, 233
Poor, Daniel W., mentioned, 276
Porter, Eleazar, establishes first
scholarship, 144
Potter, William A., architect of
college church, 154
Pratt, Charles M., gives the Pratt
Gymnasium, 232
Pratt, F. B., mentioned, 258
Prayer by friends in State legis-
lature, 114
Prayers, college, held in old meet-
ing-house, 28; in scientific lec-
ture-room, 29; hour changed,
80
President's house, first, corner-
stone laid, 26; finished, 28;
second, built, 83
Prizes, 145, 253
3io
INDEX.
Psi Upsilon Society, mentioned,
28, 84 n., 302
QUEEN'S College, charter for, I
Question box, 246
REDFIELD, Prof., mentioned, 121
Religion, first revival, 36; Am-
herst's orthodoxy defended, 49;
religious support of the college
wanes, 87; new era in the nine-
teenth century, 267; revivals,
270, 272, 274, 275, 276, 277,
278, 280, 282, 283, 284; new
mode of life, 285; increased
percentage of church-members
at entrance, 286; influences
unfavorable to revivals, 285-90
Resources, early, 35
Richards, Rev. Austin, D.D.,
mentioned, 271
Richardson, Prof. Henry B.,
mentioned, 72 ., 215
Rising, Hon. C. B., mentioned,
H5
Robinson, Stewart, mentioned,
90 n.
Root, Prof. Elihu, death, 216;
his achievements, 218; men-
tioned, 215
SABINE, Rev. Dr., mentioned,
191
Salaries of professors, 60 and n. ,
85; reduced, 102; dependent on
income of college, 106, 109; in
1846-47, no
Sanford, John E., tutor, 134
Schneider, Rev. Benjamin*, D.D.,
his sons in the Civil War, 188
Scholarships, first established,
144; established at the Semi-
centennial Celebration, 196
Scientific apparatus provided, 29
department founded, 124;
reasons for failure, 125
Seal of the college, 61
Sears, Hon. David, gift, 101,
104, 109; additional gift, 115;
condition of his foundation,
118; gifts for the library, 124;
231; mentioned, 121
Sears Foundation of Literature
and Benevolence, begun, 104;
increased, 115, 116; part for
books, 123
Seelye, Julius H., D.D., peculiar
features of his accession to the
presidency, 198-203, 247; ser-
vice in Congress, 201, 206,
248; character of his adminis-
tration, 204; inauguration, 206;
inaugural address, 207-9; m "
stalled pastor of the college
church, 209; his religious in-
struction, 21 1 ; mode of choos-
ing professors, 213; his teach-
ing of philosophy, 215; attitude
toward the faculty, 216; mode
of governing the college, 245;
gives up professorship of phil-
osophy, 246; use of books,
247; writings, 247-49; failing
health, 250; resigns, 251; men-
tioned, 72, 151 n., 191; quoted,
234, 238, 243, 264
Seelye, Mrs. J. H., death, 250
Seelye, Rev. L. Clark, appointed
professor, 174
Semi-Centennial Celebration, re-
solutions of alumni, 190; com-
mittees appointed, 191; exer-
cises, 192; addresses published,
193; alumni present, 194
Senate, College, 242; suspension,
243 n.
Senior levee, 133
Sheldon, Luther, mentioned, 21,
32
Shepard, Charles U., professor,
106; offers his mineralogical
cabinet, 116; mentioned, 121,
125, 126, 134; quoted, 34, 35
Shepard, Rev. George, offered
the presidency, 105
Shepard minerals, burned, 226;
valuation, 227
Silliman, Prof. Benjamin, men-
tioned, 121
Smith, George P., mentioned, 276
INDEX.
Smith, Prof. Henry B., men-
tioned, 134
Smith, Rev. Hiram, mentioned,
194
Smith, James, gives $10,000, 144
Smith, Nathaniel, mentioned.
3, 16, 21, 55
Smith, Prof. W. B., mentioned,
216
Snell, Prof. Ebenezer Strong,
first president of the Alexan-
drian Society, 33; graduation,
36; appointed tutor, 60;
granted $3,000 for apparatus,
167; death, 216; his life work,
217; mentioned, 27, 62, 72 n.,
125, 134, 151 ., 153, 154,
193, 226, 227; quoted, 17
Snell, Rev. Thomas, D.D.,
mentioned, 21, 25 ., 26, 32;
quoted, 38
Societies, students', history and
influence, 261-65; statistics,
302
Society of Inquiry, character
changed, 262
Sodom, 47 n.
South College, erection, 17-19;
its rooms, 27; renovated, 233
Southworth, Wells, mentioned,
17 .
Spear, Charles Vinals, mentioned,
277
Spotswood, Rev. J. B., D.D.,
mentioned, 273
Stearns, Rev. William Augustus,
appointed president, 128; his
inaugural address, 131, 140;
life, 139; his administration,
1 7 5~7 75 death, 177; last days,
177-79; funeral, 179-80; his
preparations for resigning the
presidency, 200; last revival,
283; quoted, 149, 154, 156,
161, 282
Stearns, William F., gives the
College Church, 156; men-
tioned, 155
Stockbridge, Hon. H. S., men-
tioned, 193
Storrs, Rev. Richard Salter,
D.D., mentioned, 42, 79, 191,
193, 210
Strong, H. Wright, mentioned,
16, 21, 32
Strong, Hon. Lewis, mentioned,
52
Stuart, Prof., mentioned, 24,
25 n.
Students, free from distractions
in early years, 35; numbers, 26,
63, 70, 85, 86; work on the
grounds, 33, 73; self-govern-
ment, 74; celebrate completion
of the subscription of 1832,
80; relations with faculty, 88-
98; welcome home to Presi-
dent Hitchcock, 123; welcome
President Stearns, 141; lay cor-
ner-stone of Walker Hall, 153;
of College Church, 156; offer a
company for the Civil War,
182
Subscription of 1832, 79
Subscription of $100,000 raised,
100-102
Sumner, Hon. Bradford, men-
tioned, 53 n.
Sweetser, J. H., gives prizes, 145
Sweetser, Luke, gives a geological
lecture-room, 146; mentioned,
149, 150
Sykes, H. A., architect of college
buildings, 146
TAPPAN, Dr. John, 117
Tappan, John, founds the Sam-
uel Green professorship, 167
Taylor, Rev. James, mentioned,
3, 16, 21, 268
Tobey, Rev. A., D.D., quoted,
273
Todd, Prof. David P., men-
tioned, 215, 226
Tolman, Albert, tutor, 134
Torrey, David, tutor, 134
Towne, Gen. Salem, Jr., men-
tioned, 21, 32
Trask, J. E., mentioned, 55
Treasurer's office burned out,
312
INDEX.
228 ; removed to Walker Hall,
229
Tuckerman, Edward, appointed
professor of botany, 169
Tyler, Prof. John M., men-
tioned, 215
Tyler, Rev. William, mentioned,
100
Tyler, Rev. William S., D.D.,
college service, ix-xi, xiv; ap-
pointed professor of Latin,
Greek, and Hebrew, 64; starts
subscription for library build-
ing-, 123; subscribes to build
gymnasium, 150; requested to
prepare a history of Amherst
College, 190; acting president,
206; mentioned, 4, 43, 125,
134, 156, 182, 193, 222
VACATIONS changed, 82,100
Vaill, Rev. Joseph, agent, 75,
101; mentioned, 16, 79, 105,
106, 117, 129, 150. 153
Vose, James G., appointed pro-
fessor, 173; became a bishop,
174
WALKER, Francis A., quoted,
256, 259
Walker, Dr. W. J., gifts and
bequest, 143; founder of de-
partment of mathematics and
astronomy, 164
Walker Hall, built, 151-53;
burned, 225; rebuilt, 227
Walker Instructorship, 165
Walker Legacy Fund, 167, 169
Warner, Rev. Aaron, appointed
professor, 106; resigns, 127;
mentioned, 125, 134
Washburn, Dr. Charles Ellery,
death in the Civil War, 185
Washburn, Rev. George, quoted,
281
Webster, Daniel, mentioned, 6 n.
Webster, Noah, mentioned, 18,
n.j 20, 21, 25; quoted, 5, 14,
18, 25 n.
Well, college, 19
W T heeler, President, mentioned,
121
Whipple, Edwards, mentioned,
16
Wilder, S. V. S., mentioned, 56
Williams, Israel, mentioned, I
Williams College, union with the
Charity Institution provided
for, 7; removal considered, 13-
15; remonstrates against incor-
poration of Amherst, 52; men-
tioned, i, 2, 3, 26, 30, 48, 49
Williston, A. L., mentioned, 227,
229, 232
Williston, Hon. Samuel, founds
Williston professorship, 109;
founds a second professorship
and half a third, 113, 116; gift
for library building, 123; gives
$10,000, 144; gives Williston
Hall, 149; gift for improving
grounds, 159; presides at the
Semi-Centennial Celebration,
192; donation in 1871, 197;
mentioned, 117, 121, 146, 150,
151, 155
Wines and liquors prohibited to
students, 23
Winn, Washington H., men-
tioned, 273
Woodbridge, Rev. Dr., quoted,
273
Woods, Hon. Josiah B., raises
money for buildings, in; men-
tioned, 115, 121, 150
Woods Cabinet, in, 118
Worcester, Samuel M., tutor, 43;
librarian, 43; professor, 62
YALE College, mentioned, 24, 63,
266
Young Men's Christian Associa-
tion, mentioned, 288
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
J^HE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST, MASSA-
CHUSETTS, prepared and published by FREDERICK II.
HITCHCOCK. Revised Edition, 1894. 200 pp., 70 Illustra-
tions. $1.10.
CONTENTS.
AMHERST OF THE PAST.
The Hartford Revolt Settlement of Hadley A Glimpse at
Early Amherst A Town at Last Wars and Rumors of Wars.
THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. By Mabel Loomis Todd.
The Beauty of an August Day Characteristic Flowers and
Birds Literature of the Valley Its Geology A Few Historical
Glimpses.
A FEW DELIGHTFUL DRIVES.
View from Holyoke Charming Hadley The " Meadow City"
Blood-Stained Deerfield Other Attractive Places.
AMHERST OF THE PRESENT.
Its Situation Material Conditions Glimpses Along the Streets
of the Village North Amherst The "City" East Street
South Amherst.
AMHERST COLLEGE.
A Glance at Its History The College of the Present The
Summer School of Languages A Tour of the College Buildings
The Greek-Letter Fraternities Their Houses.
THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
Historical Notes Present Conditions The Experiment Stations
A Glance at the Buildings.
The features of that delightful locality have been well set forth with pen and
picture. The work has no list of " prominent men " or other similar features that
characterize handbooks published for advertising purposes. There are 75 beauti-
ful illustrations in process work. Springfield Republican.
The vicinity of Amherst is of interest to every New Englander, as many
events of historical interest are connected with that part of Massachusetts, and
for this reason the handsomely bound and printed volume just issued will be
welcome. Newton Graphic.
A handsomely illustrated book descriptive of the quaint college town of
Amherst. It goes beyond the mere guide-book not only in the excellence of the
illustrations but in the trustworthy historical sketch which constitutes its first
chapter. Public Opinion.
Sent post-paid on receipt of price by the publisher ^
FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK,
55 WEST 45TH STREET, NEW YORK.
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